Shantytowns and Fashionistas

I was recently struck by two current trends that seem to tie in directly to what we've been talking about. The first is the new surge in tent cities, reminiscent of the Shantytowns in the Depression. We might not know it in an urban environment like New York City, where homeless is wide spread, yet scattered, but in many smaller cities, most notably Fresno, Sacramento, Nashville and Seattle, tent cities are rapidly appearing as homeless rates rise in the midst of the recession. These illegal, make-shift homeless communities have popped up in at least a dozen cities across the country and are becoming known as modern-day Hoovervilles.

Shantytown 2009: Sacramento homeless camp by the highway.

In Fresno, there are five major encampments downtown and along the highways, plagued by violence, drug use, and even prostitution. The city has even sent in security guards and portable toilets to keep the situation under control, which only attracted more homeless residents. One of the encampments, called Taco Flats, is filled with a large number of Latino residents, who moved up to Fresno with the promise of agricultural jobs, only to find that the positions had all evaporated as a result of the state of the economy and a 3 year drought (not so different from the Oakies).

Check out the NY Time's slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/03/25/us/20090326-TENTS_index.html.

It's interesting that a lot of us, in such a large coastal city, have not experienced seeing this new kind of poverty at such an extreme level. As more and more homeless families enter New York City everyday, maybe things will change and these kinds of living environments will become more eminent. Yet, unlike the Oakies, there is no where for these people to go, no promise of something better out West. Many of them are already in California, where they can't even land minimum wage jobs at Fast Food Restaurants, because with the economy in this state, those are harder to find then ever. The other trend that instantly grabbed my attention from what we've briefly talked about in the Ralph Lauren line, is the new trend to use homelessness as an inspiration for fashion. The September issue of W Magazine features a 28 page photo spread which features dresses made out designer shopping bags, such as Chanel and Dior. Russian model Sasha Pivovarova is shown slumped on a park bench with a Prada bag. Last week Scott Shuman posted a photo of a homeless man on his popular fashion blog, saying that he doesn't usually photograph homeless people, but it was clear form the man's jean shorts over sweat pants look, gloves and glasses, that he wanted to “communicate and express himself through style.”

W Magazine: September issue features this model in a dress made of shopping bags taking an afternoon nap on a park bench.

The worst of them all is model turned designer, Erin Wasson, who defended the remarks she made last year to Nylon Magazine: “The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest,” she said, “It's not like I'm saying, 'Oh God, that's so inspiring–you got your clothes from a garbage can. When I moved down to Venice Beach, I found these people with this amazing mentality, this gypsy mentality – people that you couldn't label and put in a box.” What she forgot, mentions the writer of the article, is that some of those people actually do live in a box.

Hobo-Chic: John Galliano's "Clochard" collection, inspired by tent dwellers in Paris.

It's ridiculous that this fashion trend has evolved in the midst of a rise in homelessness due to the recession. How can these people derive inspiration from the homeless and say that people without a home care about being stylish? The worst part is that they're not joking.

(Here are the two NY Times articles that I used as sources: Fashion: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/fashion/12DIARY.html?scp=8&sq=homeless... Tent City: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html )