Tag: clothes

politics

Terrorist Chic

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For the past few months I have seen a very noticeable up-tick in the amount of Arab keffiyehs being worn, especially the white and black style worn by so many Palestinians. While there are tons of Europeans walking the streets of NYC these days due to the weak dollar (and Europeans tend to support the Palestinian cause much more than Americans), that doesn’t totally explain the phenomenon.
It turns out that one of “the” fashion looks this season is to wear a scarf around your neck in a fashion that will make you look to many people either like a Palestinian, a Terrorist, or potentially both. Rachel Ray wore one of these scarves in a Dunkin Donuts ad and now there are lots people who now think that both Rachel Ray and Dunkin Donuts support terrorists.

I know one could consider “Don’t Mess with the Zohan” the first “Terrorist comedy” but does this scarf / keffiyeh look make terrorism “the new black” of the fashion world? And if so, more importantly, why is this cool?
UPDATED ON 5/29: DD has pulled the ad and Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East, said “complaints about the scarf’s use in the ad demonstrate misunderstandings of Arab culture and the multiple meanings that symbols can take on depending on someone’s perspective” and “to reduce their meaning to support for terrorism has a tacit racist tone to it.”
As “Avenue Q” sang, everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes. Did I just prove that point? I’m not so sure. I feel pretty strongly that at least in the West, for whatever reason, if you see a keffiyeh, you think of not so good things…
Via Jessie

ramblings

Buy This Tee Shirt For Me Por Favor

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My bro-in-law just sent me a link to a site that is devouted to “gamers, geeks and hackers.” Gotta love that. It has tons of stuff to buy in all sorts of lovely categories. The clothes are the by far the best. After briefly scanning the tee shirt page, I really would love for someone to buy me this one. Why have I never seen this on St. Marks Place? Thanks in advance to whomever is buying it – if you need my snail mail address in order to ship this to me, send me an email. Thanks in advance!

Thanks Amos

ramblings

Sacreligious? Maybe but they still are awesome!

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Inspired by the MC Paul Barman lyric, “I couldn’t stay calm because/ she revealed a bra made of two yarmulkes,” designer KS turns the fantasy into a reality but lauching Yarmulkebra.com. This site made me think of Jessie’s “shana punim” T-shirt which is put out by the Rabbis Daughters clothing line.That then made me perform a google search on this subject and I found the following at ABCNEWS.com:

Kosher Culture
Chutzpah Alert: Jewish Culture Gets Hip

Dec. 24 [2003] – It may have started years ago when Adam Sandler released his “Hannukah Song,” a laugh-out-loud ode to being Jewish during Christmastime with the refrain, “Put on your yarmulke, It’s time for Hannukah.”

Lately, Jewish culture is being put on the map with features in recent editions of Time and Time Out New York. Both magazines spotlight clothing that proclaims Jewish pride, or as one company seasonally puts it: “Chanukah Chutzpah.”

Web sites, including rabbisdaughters.com and jewcy.com, are targeting Jewish youth with pride T-shirts bearing mottos like “Jewcy” – a play on the popular designer brand, Juicy, which says it celebrates”kosher-style fabulosity.”

Rabbi’s Daughters sells T-shirts that say “Oy Vey,” which means woe is me and “Shiksa,” which refers to a non-Jewish female. The Rabbi’s Daughter line is now in more than 100 stores, and non-Jewish people are buying too.

Then there is The Hebrew Hammer, a new film modeled on the “Blaxspoitation” films of the ’70s, like Shaft. It features “an orthodox stud” who is a “sexy and powerful Jewish action hero,” the publicity material says.

It’s all for laughs.

But why all the attention now?

Julia Lowstein, who put a Jewish spin on J. Lo with her company Jewlo.com, says it is a way for Jewish to show off their identities.

“Younger Jews are accepting their Jewish identity and looking for ways to ‘represent,'” she told Time magazine. “With the alarming rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses, as well as in the national consciousness, young Jews are feeling that now is an especially important time to be forthright and proud of who they are.”

Even fashionistas and non-Jewish celebrities are getting into the act. Christina Aguilera and Kelly Osbourne have been spotted with Jewish pride T-shirts.

(thanks to Jessie for the yarmulkebra.com link which inspired this post)