Selling Weird

It's a little known fact that I'm becoming a bit of a fashion fan (everybody who works with me is looking at what I'm wearing right now and wondering how this is possible. It's called being broke, people.). There's something about daring, idiosyncratic clothing that makes me giddy, and the intellectual issues involved with designing, marketing, and packaging those clothes really interests me. As such, I found this NY Times article about the collaboration between Marc Jacobs and photographer Juergen Teller fascinating:

Certainly the ads are not overtly about selling anything. “They’re not aspirational pictures,” Mr. Jacobs said. Pointing to the Cindy Sherman ads, in which she and Mr. Teller look like dumpy siblings. “You wouldn’t look at them and say, ‘Oh, mmm, that dress is so attractive.’ ”

Yet Dennis Freedman, the creative director of W, which has published Mr. Teller’s editorial work for years, contends that the ads are comparable to those Mr. Lauren did with Mr. Weber. “Ralph created a perfect world for his customer to live in,” Mr. Freedman said. “Marc has created a world around himself, and everything he does has a kind of mystique. It’s very aspirational to anyone who wants to feel they get it.”

I guess I get it, then. I'm not going to post any images, since I'm hazy on the whole "reproducing photographs from the New York Times without permission thing," but you should click through and check out the bizarre, captivating photo of Juergen Teller and Cindy Sherman as odd, misfit siblings. There's something exciting about these photos, specifically because they're selling clothing without using a model, without suckering you with sex. Wear these clothes and you'll...what? Look like an oddball? That's bravery. (Of course, when you're Marc Jacobs, you can afford that kind of bravery, and probably a whole lot more.)