Last Saturday, the New York Times ran what must be one of the dumbest attempts at a trend piece. The story, which discusses the rather comical designs of artist Aya Tsukioka, suggests that her skirts, which transform into vending machine costumes, are a response to fears of street crime among young Japanese women. Sadly, the writer Martin Fackler and the Times itself have missed the point.









There is no rampant paranoia about street crime, there is no putative need for women to conceal themselves as Coca Cola dispensers in order to evade muggers and rapists. Tsukioka's designs are arty, far removed from any practical purpose or even the tradition of clothing as disaster shelter started by fellow Japanese designer Kosuke Tsumura with Final Home.

Here is the original article in the Times and here is a great rebuttal from Neojapanisme. Read it and weep (or laugh depending on how you react to blatant ethnic generalizations in the media). As you can see from the picture above, this probably shouldn't have ever made it past Fackler's editor, yet somehow, one of the most respected dailies in the US managed to publish a totally worthless trend piece full of tired old ethnic stereotypes chasing after what would have to be the dumbest trend of all time.


Posted by James Friedman

It appears you don't have Flash installed.