The ugly Christmas sweater; once an embarrassing piece of holiday-wear, and now a fashionable commodity. But how did this occur? Guy Trebay, a culture and style reporter for the New York Times explains this strange epidemic. With rhetorical questioning about the beginning of this style, Trebay explains that the true start of this holiday fashion epidemic has no real set beginning. It might’ve started with the ugly sweater carols on Youtube, or the Ugly Sweater 5k runs, and goes on to an even longer list of possible causes. It’s a trend that many online stores and brands are and have tapped into, an ironic host of all those old sweaters that an aunt or grandmother may have given and never worn. All those ugly sweater parties with everyone trying to “one-up” each other with how ugly their sweaters were. The article’s drawing from cultural memory, a memory of cheesy designs and horror, never giving a true answer to the question -when did this trend start?- but giving hints and reasons that may have all brought this epidemic over the tipping point into what is now a profitable tradition. But I suppose the true purpose of this article is to show that all these cheesy designs and the remarkable tradition of wearing your ugly Christmas sweater is in fact, all for the fun of it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/fashion/ugly-holiday-sweaters-are-all-the-rage-cultural-studies.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
No comments:
Post a Comment