Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Fashion dictates that we should dress to kill

By Mary Ann Cook

Hey, wait a minute. What's this in the hand of the chiffon-bedecked model in this fashion ad illustration? The dress is really something to salivate over: a floating creation of black chiffon, flecked throughout with gold Mylar. And in this dazzling creature's hand? A gun. A gun?

In this particular ad's vision she doesn't seem to be tuned into the gun bit at all. She doesn't have a steady grip on it even, that's obvious. Indeed, it looks as though she doesn't even know she's holding it. Sort of an afterthought of the artist's, maybe. But that doesn't reassure me one whit.

I've been charged in the past with not having a developed sense of outrage. A former editor counseled that a sense of outrage is crucial equipment for a municipal reporter. But I find this ad outrageous.

Every day brings fresh outpourings of senseless killings--drive-by shootings, people taking a bead on someone fleeing, aiming at another's heart or their own. A child finds a gun and directs it toward his playmate with tragic results. To add a gun as a fashion accessory is preposterous and offensive.

Besides that, it's pointless. Unless, of course, you want to foster the idea that being armed is being elegant. That to have an offhand attitude about destruction is chic. The purpose of this ad seems to be to glamorize guns and to affect nonchalance toward violence as well.

Does the fashion world actually want to nurture the idea that sophistication and destruction belong together? To encourage us to get dressed for a gala and grab a handgun as we go out the door? That what the well-dressed partygoer will wear this season is a combination like velvet opera cloak and Billy club; gold lamé dancing slippers and saber sword; silvery raincoat and metallic knuckles to match?

I realize that in many parts of the world, being armed is being adequately clothed, but surely that m.o. hasn't reached the caviar set.

There's a nonchalance toward violence communicated here that is chilling. A callous casualness about life is conveyed. It's just a sketch. It's just an ad in a periodical with a limited lifespan. But symbols are nothing to be taken lightly. They tell a lot about a culture. Maybe more than any other single thing.

Mary Ann Cook is a frequent contributor to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times

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