Erick Valle
ENG 2150
Draft of the first assignment
[Intro of the paper (draft)]
[I honestly don’t know what to put on this paper because the draft got deleted by itself. I could honestly give less of a fuck if whoever’s reading this believes me because of the manic state I’m in right now. So here’s the last minute two-hour draft].
Controversy draws a crowd like no other in today’s society. The attention brought from controversy is usually due to an inflammatory subject within two fronts. Attention is circulated by the inflammatory subject. Let’s take two current and relevant examples such as the brand Supreme’s vulgar pieces, and the insta-famous celebrity Danielle Bregoli. Supreme has developed a reputation of emulating a rebellious culture through their works, such as the Piss Christ tee which was a collaborative piece that has a commentary on anti-institutional sentiment. Danielle Bregoli, on the other hand, is a girl who started out on her appearance on the Dr. Phil TV show due to her flagrant behavior with her mother. She has then since evolved into an insta-celebrity status and has put out rap songs as well. Both of these pieces commentate on how attractive inflammatory material is to the viral nature of a subject. This is because of the constant buzz that surrounds the subject that allows it to thrive in the minds of the public. And with today’s media, the scope as to which someone can become viral is more widened and faster than ever before. It can even open up doorways to other forms of viral status, as shown by Danielle’s career.
[body paragraph of Danielle Bregoli :)]
Danielle Bregoli, when she first appeared on the Dr.Phil show, was 13 years old and was brought on to have an intervention about her behavior. During the episode she is shown to have this sort of “thuggish attitude” despite her not really being about that life. The episode then carries on into her 15 seconds of fame when she says her famous line “Catch me outside how bout that” which in layman’s term means that she’s willing to fight anyone who has a problem with her attitude. People were quick to then turn her into a meme, which with the help of social media made her blow up. People seemed to find the irony behind her character funny, and that prompted her follow count on Instagram to skyrocket. Another group of people began to question as to why she was famous, to begin with. They found her rebellious attitude to be the delusions of a young teen and were actually unattracted to that inflammatory subject. What that group of people failed to realize is that they just answered their own question. The general crowd in today’s age is attracted to inflammatory items, and contrary to what the “haters” are thinking that they’re doing, the “haters” are also throwing fuel to her famous reputation. As long as people even remotely give her attention, she will remain viral, regardless if that attention is positive or negative. She has then had the doors open to her when that same infamous reputation got her sponsorships. Then it moved on to a full rap career, and networking with other media outlets and celebrities.
A viral representation often used for rebellious culture is the very popular clothing brand “Supreme”. The clothing brand makes pieces, outfits, and accessories since 1994 in New York City. Their main audience is young teens, skaters, and street fashionistas. Most notable of their brand are the pieces that yell out a rebel vibe. The designers give off a rebellious attitude that is parallel to that of a typical teen skater. The message and vibe of the pieces are usually presented through symbolic devices such as symbolism, irony, and allusion. For example images from the Spring/Summer collection features pieces such as the “Motherfucker Towel”, that exhibit an awesome and glorified tone of the word motherfucker, the symbolism of this word is a purposely inflammatory statement all fit into one word. The “Cops Jacquard pocket tee” from that very same collection presents a conceit through its design. The tee shirt has words that compare individuals to the cops, such as “Doctors are cops, Radios are cops, Cameras are cops..” this a commentary of the over surveilled nature of the U.S. through a rebellious undertone. The conceit is how many of our close things that are essential to life are being used as an instrument of surveillance, such as medical records (the doctors), your phone camera (the cameras); very institutionalized method of control, very “fight the man” esque. These pieces are viral, to begin with, is because of the deified nature of their clothing, and how “rebellious” their designs are. It speaks to young teens such as myself, as I’m guilty of purchasing their products. The larger purpose of their pieces is to continue this tradition of anti-institutional, and rebellious attitude to the skater culture. Supreme has already had an inflammatory reputation for being anti-institutional; back in their FW 2017, they included a collaboration sub collection with artist Andres Serrano. A piece from that subcollection was a tee shirt that had a print of a photograph that is titled “Piss Christ”. The “Piss Christ” tee shirt showed a plastic cross with Christ submerged in urine. This included other pieces that have a design of blood and semen seen from a microscopic point of view. They purposely collaborated a controversial artist for that same reason; while it wasn’t new to the brand it was a popular collection that sold out in under 30 seconds during its online release of Sep 25, 2017. In recent years the popularity of the brand became viral due to collaborations with other relevant brands and the widespread appearances in the wardrobes of rappers and celebrities. Their style is very baggy, nonchalant, and scrappy; they take photos including models with a slumped laid back attitude and unregulated hairstyles; and shoot videos of awesome skateboard tricks on often private property in the city of New York. Where there is a subculture of rebellious attitude, street fashion hype, and skateboards there is a Supreme piece to be found nowadays.
https://www.supremenewyork.com/previews/springsummer2019/tops-sweaters/cops-jacquard-pocket-tee
https://www.supremenewyork.com/previews/springsummer2019/accessories/motherfucker-towel
https://www.supremenewyork.com/news/680/images?image=0