Extreme Russian nationalism on Britain’s High Streets
Matthew:
May 21st, 2007
I have long been suspicious of people that wear clothes adorned with arbitrary slogans. T shirts with meaningless numbers, emblems of universities the wearer’s never been to and garages and diners that probably don’t even exist. There’s nothing particularly decorative about the number 26 in my opinion. And don’t get me started on those apolitical business students getting ready for a career in investment banking heading down to Topshop to buy a mass manufactured Che Guevara T shirt. People seem perfectly happy to cover themselves in symbols, which if they have any significance, the fashion follower is totally ignorant of it. Some people are even content to have kanji or Chinese letters tattooed onto their skin. Would they even know if the tattoo artist instead of writing ‘Barry Hooper’ had written ‘Ignorant simpleton’? I think not.
‘Where’s this rant going?’ I hear you cry, avid Ibloggers…
Well, this week my suspicions were confirmed, as menswear chain Burton’s came under fire for selling a t shirt whose decoration was Cyrillic script. The chain had clearly not even taken the trouble to consult a Russian speaker as to what the sentence actually said. It turned out to be a slogan of an extreme right-wing Russian nationalist organisation. The slogan was ‘Cleanse Russia of all non-Russians.’ People! Fashionistas! Beware of draping yourselves in symbols of which you have no understanding. You never know what you might be standing for.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
When I see some prat in a Che t-shirt, I am sadly reminded of a quote from him - “Man really attains the state of complete humanity when he produces, without being forced by physical need to sell himself as a commodity”. Che is now the ultimate commodified signifier for faux-radicalism. Despite my consistent leftism, I am glad to say have never ever owned a Che anything, thank Christ, even as a anti-capitalist No Logo toting teenager. Give me a Alasdair Macintyre T-shirt and we’ll talk.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Topshop keep producing t-shirts with hideous (and mostly stolen from other designers) slogans on them such as ’save the rave’, “drop beats not bombs” and now, “i started this trend”. Oh how clever. I did however notice one recently saying “Live fast, die young” so hopefully some of the topshop buying public will take this to heart.