I visited the American Apparel warehouse sale last week and while I enjoyed buying shirts and skirts for a fraction of the price, I couldn’t help but feel a little strange. I actually dedicated a whole year of my life to studying American Apparel for my undergraduate thesis so I’m very aware of their marketing and design strategies. (You can read an extract American Apparel: Innovation and Exploitation on my page on D-Crit website, where I talk a little about Marxism and describe Dov Charney as a benevolent dictator.)
But I could help but wonder, do sample sales not damage the aura of a brand that the company and all the branding strategists, designers and marketers work so hard to achieve? The warehouse sale appeared nothing like the store with all the clothes laid out so carefully according to colour. I examined the piles of t-shirts, hoodies and bras that seemed to stretch on for miles and suddenly they didn’t feel as special anymore. When basic t-shirts are really are all the same, then the brand’s aura is even more important. Why else would we spend $24 on a -shirt? I’m not saying that I think this demystification is a bad thing, I just think it’s something fashion companies should consider…
It actually reminded me of a talk that the wonderful Glenn Adamson, curator at the V&A, gave at a craft conference in Dublin many years ago. He showed this picture of Picasso’s ceramic studio that really stuck with me. It made his art feel less sacred and more like a commodity.
For further reading on the aura and this whole subject, I recommend reading Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I feel if I try to do a synopsis, I may end up undermining the original – which is kinda the main point of the piece, I guess!
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