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. With The Ugly Americans — who rock BAPE!
Portfolio has a big piece about Nigo. I skimmed it quickly, and I have to say that the Complex blog found the one interesting quote, from Hiroshi Fujiwara:
Fujiwara, who is still revered in Tokyo as perhaps the one man who can launch a trend, is even more dismissive of Nigo. “I just wonder how he feels when he sees ugly people wearing his clothes. If you go to the countryside in America and people are wearing Bathing Ape, that’s not very cool.” Fujiwara, now a consultant for Nike and Levi’s, shrugs. “I thought he was more like us, but he changed.”
Hm. Well, I hope his clients Nike and Levi’s take heed, and prevent “ugly people” from buying their products.
Further diversion may be found at MKTG Tumblr, and the Consumed Facebook page.
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Reader Comments
Nigo used to have the same anti-U.S./pro-U.K. attitude when he was still a Fujiwara clone. During his Saul-to-Paul conversion to the Hip Hop Gospel around 2002, America suddenly lost its ugliness.
It’s ironic that those ugly provincial Americans wearing BAPE are probably rocking knockoffs. BAPE priced itself out of reach to the Walmart set from the jump.
In one fell swoop I lost a large part of respect for HF. Its one thing to be a “cool guy” puppet master, but the root of this quote is something beyond a street fashion thing…
Fujiwara basically said out loud what a lot of designers just keep to themselves. Do you think he would want Soulja Boy rockin’ his clothes? HELL NO. I wouldn’t either, personally. There’s a reason models in the fashion industry tend to be oh, I don’t know…attractive? Pretty people wearing your clothes makes them look better and elevates your brand. Country hicks wearing your clothes does the exact opposite.