Pride and Parody.
I don’t remember the first Devil Wears Prada, although I have seen it.
One of the things I appreciate the most about my brain is its capacity to hide crap that I don’t need from my immediate memory only to dig it up when I do. This film I never have needed so it is a blank of sorts, honestly I don’t even remember if I laughed, or what I thought about it after.
But this promo shot - I am sure it is meant to be in character - is somewhat offensive in its ridiculousness.
I know the whole thing is meant to be a parody, but a parody which is sanctioned by the very people it’s supposed to scratch is called advertising.
This is the fashion industry, confident in its own arrogance, showing it can laugh at itself because, hey, they aren’t going to make a Hollywood film about you are they?
They are making it about me!
Me, me, me!!!
And you can take the piss as much as you want because anyway, you’re the jerk who’ll buy the grossly inflated products at the end.
And the actors, you can see from their smirks that they are in on it, because clearly they consider thespians to be above the overblown, pompous fashionistas they temporarily portray, so of course they are in character, parading as silly fashion people for the paps (but secretly they actually quite like all the free clothes, the accessories, the attention).
When does a parody become real?
When do the parodied become the proud?
The state of the fashion industry is beyond parody. Two opposite poles, the super cheap and the super expensive, on a race to destroy us.
An industry that has cannibalised the craft that originated it.
A system which designed itself to be so unfriendly to workers and nature that it rather owns up to its own fascism, rudeness, stupidity and greed in the movies in order to hide from you the reality of its supply chain and dodgy business.
An industry so confident of its own money and bad taste that it can withstand a little pain, a little ridicule - because it will never be at its expense, only ours.
An industry so corrupted by money and power that it doesn’t care about common mortals anymore, it doesn’t even care how we dress, or what we wear, just look at how clothes are made these days, all of them, fast fashion or fast luxury they all look like shit, they are all made of polyester, they have blended into a sameness that doesn’t distinguish anymore.
And is Stanley Tucci supposed to look like Bezos?