Trending beyond one's means.

At the Brooklyn Museum the other night a CURIOUS celebration was afoot . The opening of the Murakami retrospective, LAVISHLY underwritten by LVMH was a LOVE-IN between Marc Jacobs, Murakami, the Grande Fromages of Louis Vuitton and all of their nearest and dearest.
This crowd was HAUTE. So HAUTE, they were SMOKIN' !!!! What was so puzzling about this SHINDIG was the ironic humor of a TABLEAU VIVANT that Marc and Murakami and Management dreamed up. Clearly a FEVER dream that a a scotch and soda would have dispatched tout suite ,STAT for those of you lingually challenged. This tableau vivant was staged outside the entrance to the museum. There was a faux CHINA TOWN set up with a dollop of African inflected table and tarps covered in LOUIS. Now these clever boys hired 'ACTORS' from Casting de CHINE and Casting for COLOR to people these booths and blankets making it look like the real deal. You know, HOCKERS hocking real stuff looking like fake stuff for REALLY HIGH PRICES. It was a passion play ,a fashion play on political correctness.
Now the real theater was the guest list pretending to be like most of us shopping for a great knock off ( I'm not condoning buying counterfeited MERCH, but this is a story so just stay with me on this). Acting POOR but looking LOADED. This is the MAGIC of the fine art of TRENDING. One is transported through CLASS and SPACE by merely purchasing and donning unexplainably over priced articles of fashion: clothing, jewelry and accessories .
The HOI POLOI watched this parade of the FAUXBULOUS, looking confused and not just a tad put off. Sometimes cleverness can fly right over the heads it's meant to amuse. I certainly felt a mix of emotions: ENVY and DISGUST.
ENVY of the socialites and celebs conspicuously consuming and not appearing to care about the thousands this REAL fake stuff cost. I was DISGUSTED by these socialites and celebs conspicuously consuming and not appearing to care about the thousands this REAL fake stuff cost. Way down deep, I was DISGUSTED by my ENVY. It looked like a PERVERSE performance for us, the onlookers. There was an ELITISM to that evening that left one COLD. HAIRLESS and HAIRLOTS alike.
Marc and Murakami convinced the LVMH brass that these bags would bring joy and vanquish sorrow, fear and GRIEF caused by 9/11. We new yorkers needed a PICK ME UP and these totes starting at 2,4 6 and 10 grand were just what the doc prescribed.

The LOVE FEST inside was chillier than the cold rainy outside.

Marc and Murakami were feeling it, what with the MAGIC they created with all these ultimate GIFT BAGS outside and the SHOP IN SHOP set up INSIDE the museum . It was A PICK N PAY for the PRECIOUS. The show was sort of an accessory to the commerce going on. Almost like Marc and Murakami were SHILLS for the 3 card monty game going on simultaneously. Create an environment that causes people to TREND beyond their means. Just because Sofia, Eva, and Chloe can, doesn't mean we can or should or MUST.

It takes a Fashion Superstar to see beyond the clouds of debris, asbestos and rubble and find the pulse of a culture and HEAL it. One could go a baby step further and say THEY all found a not very nice way to profit from this tragedy. But when we are prone to TRENDING beyond our means we are susceptible to CHARLATANS. When you see black AMEX cards flashing around like metro cards you can lose a bit of perspective. CRAVING the thing of the moment, some of us have spent money we don't have. Word on the street is that these purses came to be when Marc suggested to the bigboys at LVMH that these DIDDY BAGS would lift us from the depression many of us felt post 9/11. He believed that this bag costing from 2-10 grand would lift all our spirits and give us something to feel good about. Those of us watching our livelihoods crumble,our lives completely and irrevocably altered could GRAB a LOUIS and find reason to GO ON. A tote bag that most can't fathom owning would be just the ticket to
NIRVANA. An AMEX entre to the land of PLENTY.

This would have been a perfect OPRAH moment. That girl, SHE of the selfless gesture would have taken every one of those bags and GIVEN them to everyone OUTSIDE , those who couldn't pay the price and GIVE FREELY the DREAM. Murakami was asked what it's like to be so rich and successful. He said it gave him the chance to throw a party like this one and watch the money wash away. If that's the case, why were they selling LOUIS willy-nilly, consequently putting that money right back in his pockets.

I must have missed something.....Maybe this is the NEW MATH my Mommie used to talk about.