abu ghraib prison collection

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Thank you to A Blind Flaneur for reporting on John Galliano's latest collection, one that is reminiscent of media images from the Abu Ghraib prison tragedy. It is an unfortunate oversight of mine that I do not follow the men's collections more closely. The women's collections are beautiful, they have that going for them. But a designer would be too frightened to do a heavy political commentary lest he lose clients. It's frills and lace over politics and substance. What John Galliano did is beyond street style--it is evocative of the headier days of high fashion--before street style was smarter than designers.

NPR audio clip:

Political Threads
February 01, 2008
Models wearing designs from John Galliano's Fall 2008 Mens collection looked as if they’d stepped out of Abu Ghraib prison and onto Paris runways. Do the designs fetishize torture? RISD professor Kathleen McDermott says Galliano is following in a long tradition of designers who use couture to make shocking political commentary.