Fashion designers have started the ‘Homeless Chic’ trend, which is modeled after the attire of homeless people, appearing dirty and old. | Wikimedia Commons
Visiting professor Paula Mathieu gave a lecture on a new trend that high end fashion designers are trying to sell: homeless chic.
Mathieu, an associate professor in the Department of English at Boston College, gave her take on the homeless chic trend.
“It’s terrible to say, very often the most exciting outfits are from the poorest people,” said Christian Lacroix, a designer.
One word that has been coined in reference to this is hobolicious. According to urbandictionary.com, the word is used as an adjective to refer to someone who “looks homeless and yummy at the same time.”
Mathieu discussed how public depictions of homelessness shape the views of homeless people.
“Homeless chic cannot exist without poverty,” Mathieu said.
Some say that designers are making a mockery of homeless people. While the homeless get their clothes out of dumpsters and garbage bags, designers spend thousands of dollars and countless hours taking material and making it look old and dirty. On the other hand, designers like Galliano genuinely see this type of fashion as something that is as brilliant as it is marketable.
The only thing is that they are selling it at unaffordable prices. Why pay $400 for a sweater with a hole in it when you can go in your own closet and cut a hole in one?
This topic was new for Mathieu because she teaches about the literature of homelessness.
“It’s interesting for me to look at what these images mean in like of street newspaper,” Mathieu said.
A street newspaper is a newspaper created by the homeless for the homeless. There is a website, www.street-papers.org, which is the International Network of Street Newspapers. The network consists of 112 papers in over 40 countries.
As a college student in Chicago, Mathieu started as a volunteer copy editor at Street Life Newspaper and then started her own writing group. She then worked at the Work Empowerment Center in grad school and began helping with the international network of street newspapers. She is a judge for the Annual Street Newspapers Awards. But it was never her original intention to work with community literature.
“I was interested in people’s stories,” said Mathieu. “Working at Street Wise and running a writing group, I learned a lot about how complicated lives are. Even though someone is homeless, they have had other good things that may have happened in their life. There are still other creative and wonderful things about them.”
What she likes most about teaching writing is that she doesn’t have to give grades.
“Teaching writing at the University of Illinois I learned that not every person is a philosopher,” said Mathieu. “Each person writes their own story, and I can’t say that they need to change this or this isn’t true because it is their story; each story is different.”
Wow, this is as almost as cool as being unemployed under Obama. If Bush were in office, Bush's name would have in the piece at least ten times, but with Obama, the libs won't even the Magic Negro (check the LA Times). Its interesting that no one talked about solving the problem of homelessness, then again, Democrats are not about solving problems since they need a dependent consistuency.
Wow, this is as almost as cool as being unemployed under Obama. If Bush were in office, Bush's name would have been in the piece at least ten times, but with Obama, the libs won't even mention the Magic Negro (check the LA Times). Its interesting that no one talked about solving the problem of homelessness, then again, Democrats are not about solving problems and making people prosperous since they need a dependent consistuency.
I like how half the article is not even about the clothes. And not to be a bigot or anything but how exactly do homeless people write/ publish/ and distribute a newspaper?
Magic Negro??!! WOW that's racist. I would hope that in a university so full of diversity that this level of racism would not be so prevalent. Some people willfully choose ignorance, though, and I guess there's no stopping that trend either. Nice tea-party chic, Bojangles
The term 'Magic Negro' was actually popularized by Spike Lee.
"Sometimes called the "Magic Negro" or the "Mystical Negro," the term "Magical Negro" typically references characters in film and dates back to the 1950s, around the time of the film The Defiant Ones . In this film, a white man named John "Joker" Jackson (played by Tony Curtis) and a black man named Noah Cullen (played by Sidney Poitier) are convicts on a southern chain gang. When they escape because of a bus accident, they make a run for it. The going is slow because they're shackled together by a thick chain and both are also full of racial assumptions. At first, they hate each other; they argue over which way to go and Joker's use of the word "nigger." But in the end, after many trials and tribulations, they become friends. When Cullen is able to jump on the moving train, Joker can't make it. Cullen then sacrifices his own freedom to help Joker. And so the first famous Magical Negro was born."
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/king…
Much more recently, in 2001, during a discussion with students at Washington State University, film director Spike Lee popularized the concept by renaming it the "Super-Duper Magical Negro." He was referring specifically to John Coffey (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) in The Green Mile and Bagger (played by Will Smith) in The Legend of Bagger Vance.
Is this some kind of sick joke, or is the fashion industry oblivious to the very real plight that the homeless face everyday? This "trend" is further evidence of how self-absorbed clothing designers are, and they should be ashamed of their exploitation of the downtrodden.
Tasteless title.
this is hardly a new trend. da ali g show did a segment on some fashion company marketing trailer trash styles about 8 years ago. and i'm guessing there was plenty of similar shows before and after, probably since the 60s when rockers started looking like homeless haight ashbury kids and making it cool.
and to the business major? (bojangles) – LA times sucks. take it up a notch and go read the national enquirer.
maybe politics is new to you, but everyone knows that in general liberals tend not to criticize liberals much and vice versa, so go show how smart you are to a 5 year old and maybe you will get the praise you deserve.
keep your stupid bipartisan BS to yourself and try talking about something more substantial.
and it's interesting the person who complains about not mentioning a solution to homelessness himself doesn't mention any solutions.
here's mine : lynch the bankers on live TV like they deserve. they've killed more people than any serial killer could dream of and they get to walk away smiling while the rest of us suffer.