A pervert with ethics
Roya Wolverson
Issue date: 10/25/06 Section: Op-Ed
Dov Charney, CEO of the widely acclaimed clothing company American Apparel, has gotten a few things right and a dozen things wrong in his clever revolution on sexy.
Natural is sexy. He got that. Hence the advertisements boasting mixed-race models, imperfect bodies, unplucked eyebrows and unshaven armpits.
But then there's everything he got wrong--that young girls looking violable is hot. Spreading their legs uncomfortably wide, cropping their heads out of photos, and drawing attention to black rings around their eyes is just spooky. And no matter how hip-retro modern-chic you are, spooky is not hot. It's verging on child porn which, contrary to Charney's wishes, isn't and never will be the next sexual revolution.
Take a gander at his new store on Brattle Street. The window display during its opening week of business disturbed me morning after morning on my walk to class. Just beyond the window pane, a girl barely pushing 17 invited me into her brazen bedtime story: "Here I am, propped on all fours, two cheeks up and too coked up to find a lawyer with the scoop on domestic abuse." Charney's voice lingered in the background: "You know it's wrong. You know she's ripe. You decide."
Dov Charney may be cultured in the art of 1950s erotica. He may be a friend of Luca Pizzaroni and sure his ads pop up in Purple Fashion, The Village Voice, and Vice. So we've established that he has a brain and doesn't like mainstream simpletons.
But his fusion of hipster-chic and retro-porn dismisses the first thing women's style should be about - the woman. He exalts men's visceral response to pornography and encourages youngsters to involve that pornographic ideal in their sense of style.
I believe in challenging conventional notions of beauty, in embracing "real" advertising, in beautifying unusual bone structures, less makeup and knotty coifs. But I don't see the beauty in sallow skin, puerile poses and sunken eyes yoked in protest and betrayal.
Natural is sexy. He got that. Hence the advertisements boasting mixed-race models, imperfect bodies, unplucked eyebrows and unshaven armpits.
But then there's everything he got wrong--that young girls looking violable is hot. Spreading their legs uncomfortably wide, cropping their heads out of photos, and drawing attention to black rings around their eyes is just spooky. And no matter how hip-retro modern-chic you are, spooky is not hot. It's verging on child porn which, contrary to Charney's wishes, isn't and never will be the next sexual revolution.
Take a gander at his new store on Brattle Street. The window display during its opening week of business disturbed me morning after morning on my walk to class. Just beyond the window pane, a girl barely pushing 17 invited me into her brazen bedtime story: "Here I am, propped on all fours, two cheeks up and too coked up to find a lawyer with the scoop on domestic abuse." Charney's voice lingered in the background: "You know it's wrong. You know she's ripe. You decide."
Dov Charney may be cultured in the art of 1950s erotica. He may be a friend of Luca Pizzaroni and sure his ads pop up in Purple Fashion, The Village Voice, and Vice. So we've established that he has a brain and doesn't like mainstream simpletons.
But his fusion of hipster-chic and retro-porn dismisses the first thing women's style should be about - the woman. He exalts men's visceral response to pornography and encourages youngsters to involve that pornographic ideal in their sense of style.
I believe in challenging conventional notions of beauty, in embracing "real" advertising, in beautifying unusual bone structures, less makeup and knotty coifs. But I don't see the beauty in sallow skin, puerile poses and sunken eyes yoked in protest and betrayal.
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