I was shown iron man cufflinks, and told to keep an open mind, and when you constantly try to be fashionable it was hard. The idea is what the iron man cufflinks represent. Iron man is supposed to stand for Strength/masculine/american ideals. A man who wears these cufflinks is supposedly embodying these ideals. To me this is a bit of a weak connection or example to use. Honestly who takes a man with iron man cufflinks seriously? It's like saying Barrack Obama should put on the Captain America costume to be more powerful politician. It's a bit of a joke.
Instead Che Guevara might be a better example.
Che Guevara t-shirts have become classics on the street. His face has been embraced by pop culture. and become a huge icon and mass produced in the capitalist world. But that being said technically these are all non che-guevarian ideals (quite opposite actually) He was a major figure in the Cuban Revolution. A revolution that was anti-capitalist, anti-american (over simplification i know) This t-shirt is a bit ironic don't you think?
But look at the picture from a different angle. These people who buy these t-shirts, wear the communist hats, they themselves do stand for those very same principles. Well maybe not fully the same, but they are anti-norm, anti three-piece business suit, anti "the man"
This links into the idea of authenticity, Garance Dore goes on to write about how she was tempted to buy a cheaper, and non authentic version of haute-couture life style, how she has done it in the past, and regretted it. Because she felt self aware guilt and was compromising her ideals. Ultimately what we choose to buy is an extension of what we stand for-- our ideals. Because we just can not possibly buy EVERYTHING, therefore our purchases are subconscious representations of conscious ideals/ Or we consciously choose based on subconscious ideals.
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/iron-man-comic-book-cufflinks_1.jpg
http://blog.jempp.com.au/uploaded_images/Che-Guevara-symbol-t-shirt-729476.jpg
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