Thursday 17 May 2012

Idiote Mode

I was walking in town with my awesomer half this evening.  This little black dress by Alexander McQueen caught her attention.  We stopped to admire it in the window of Brown Thomas, an upscale department store on Grafton Street.

After we stood there looking at the black dress for a while, I said, "Um... isn't that a rat?"  Sure enough, the store window had a display of a dozen rats, spray painted gold and hanging by their necks.  What the...?


They were hanging in front of a black sign that repeated, "ALL YOUR FALSE GODS" three times.  Apparently Brown Thomas thinks they are being avant-garde by placing weird art in their street-facing windows.

That's rather rich coming from an uber-posh commercial establishment selling Prada, Hermes, Louis-Vuitton, Mulberry, Ralph-Lauren and oh yeah, Chanel.  You know, it occurs to me this artist must have thought himself very clever to troll the store like this.  Here's some art to mock shoppers for their consumerist desires and brand worshiping behavior.  Haha they'll never notice.  Oh wait, I'll throw in a stuffed cat urinating in the corner!  That's pure brilliance.

Is it me or is this artist so far up their own arse they see the light at the end of the tunnel?  We were about to leave when... DEAR LORD, WHAT'S THAT???  A patchwork cat falling from the sky!  Now I've seen everything.

It's kind of like the Evil Monkey from Family Guy crossed with a sock puppet gone wrong.  Well, I used to think Top Shop had the worst store windows, but now I've decided that Brown Thomas gets the Merde du Taureau award.  Congratulations!

11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Sandy, you have no idea how jaw-dropping-ly shocked we were. This whole thing was really in bad taste. Their window makes the silver unicorn with the pink lightning shooting out of its bottom (the Topshop window back in November) look rather tame.

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  2. You are so right about the mockery of the consumer who worships the "false gods" of fashion. Is that store trying to alienate anyone who could actually afford to buy a designer dress? Are they so dense they don't realize the put down? Seriously Ahren, you should send a letter to the president of Brown Thomas.

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    1. Well, I wrote to the Alexander McQueen company via their web site. It will probably get ignored.

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  3. This is one of the stupidest window displays I have ever seen. The hanging rats border on offensive as well... But I wouldn't expect those who shop there to be able to know any better. Anyone who covets Louis Vuitton or Chanel kinda has a screw loose... (No offence intended, this is just my own jaded opinion!)

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  4. Having just helped dress the window in the charity shop where I work & we do it very wittily this is ridiculous.We have such a giggle doing ours even though have no hanging gold rats !

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    1. Hi BadPenny, thanks for checking out my blog.

      When I was in college, there was an upscale mens' tailor shop in San Luis Obispo. Their window display looked like a posh gentleman's dressing room, with tweed suits and mahogany furniture displayed. Once I took a photo of the window because it was really well done. I didn't notice it at the time, but when I got home... that was when I saw the painting of the sad clown on black velvet right in the middle of it all. Somebody's idea of a joke; they got me! :)

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  5. I didn't mind the rats but then it just gets way too out there for me!

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    1. Yeah the evil monkey sock puppet kind of freaks me out too.

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  6. Hello!

    I enjoyed reading your post, when I saw the rats there, I thought the same...nasty decor xD.

    I moved to Ireland as well, but I'm Spanish :)

    Lorena Be-Bop

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  7. This message is for Keelin Kennedy who left a comment about people "being taken out of their comfort zone." Keelin apparently didn't feel comfortable leaving her own e-mail address so we could reply. What's the matter sweetie, out of your comfort zone?

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