where art thou, little brown dress?
July 12, 2006 1:03 PM   Subscribe

Remember the little brown dress? It's gone missing after the artist held an 'undressing' party and is now living its life like a 'wayward lawn gnome.'
posted by drstein (29 comments total)
 
(wayward lawn gnome is an Amelie reference... VERY good French movie.)

If it's real, I hope she does get it back, but only after it goes through varied and mysterious adventures. :)

Even if it's a hoax, it's still interesting.
posted by Malor at 1:09 PM on July 12, 2006


Cheeky travelling lawn gnomes existed before Amelie.
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:11 PM on July 12, 2006


God, people have too much free time...
posted by SweetJesus at 1:12 PM on July 12, 2006


Do they really? I deneh.....
If most people are anything like me (which of course is the case, since the universe revolves around me), they just procrastinate way too much, giving the illusion that they have way too much free time.

Mmm.
posted by ryran at 1:17 PM on July 12, 2006


I liked the brown dress, and told her as much, but I thought it would look even better crumpled up on the floor next to my bed the next morning. Sorry.
posted by bardic at 1:31 PM on July 12, 2006


Ugly dress.
posted by rxrfrx at 1:33 PM on July 12, 2006


Did the wayward lawn gnome really get its start in Amelie? I thought it was an internet prank first.
posted by cell divide at 1:35 PM on July 12, 2006


Wikipedia on travelling gnomes.

"The tradition was first recorded in Australia in the 1980s. It was popularised by several films, including the 2001 movie Amélie, where it was featured as a subplot. In 2004 it was featured in the viral marketing campaign Where is my Gnome? used by Travelocity.

There are many clubs and organizations dedicated to the prank; the best-known of these is the Garden Gnome Liberation Front."
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:39 PM on July 12, 2006


People who take the time to post on the internet that others have too much free time have way too much... well, you know.

Not enough time is spent on whimsy in this world.

I love stuff like this, though I think it would be much better if the dress became a sort of community wank hanky and a picture was posted each time a new stain appeared.
posted by bondcliff at 1:40 PM on July 12, 2006


Looks like she wasn't getting enough attention, so she upped the ante.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 1:43 PM on July 12, 2006


Next we're going to see the brown dress being worn by wailing toddlers. Now that's ART!
posted by Biblio at 1:48 PM on July 12, 2006


At some point one of our weasels selflink is gonna find that little brown dress and, well, if you've ever had a mustelid and an article of clothing loose in the same room, you know what happens.
posted by dmd at 1:51 PM on July 12, 2006


People who take the time to post on the internet that others have too much free time have way too much... well, you know.

I wouldn't think so. It takes me about 45 seconds to get the gist of the article and dismiss it as a waste of time. I'd argue that it takes much more time to steal a dress, anthropomorphize it, give it clever things to say and have it start sending photos and emails to bloggers. In fact, that sounds like it takes some amount of coordinated planning, time and effort to pull off, whereas my comments on Metafilter are usually tugged out of my craw just before posting, effort free.

Not saying it's not kinda-sorta clever, but goddamn, where do people find the time?
posted by SweetJesus at 2:03 PM on July 12, 2006


1294 comments is a lot of 45 secondses, SweetJesus.
posted by MegoSteve at 2:20 PM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]


That's high art? Shoot, I've been wearing the same black hoodie everyday for at least a year.
posted by atom128 at 2:38 PM on July 12, 2006


Maybe it's in Lebanon, getting washed in blood.
posted by DenOfSizer at 2:43 PM on July 12, 2006


I rather liked the original project, and the fact that someone else stepped in at the end and ran with it is, I dunno... strangely satisfying.

I wonder if, after a year, the current owner of the dress will find a way to pass it on to someone else to use?
posted by jack_mo at 3:06 PM on July 12, 2006


Yeah that was a hedious dress. Maybe her husband or something threw it away or something
posted by delmoi at 3:13 PM on July 12, 2006


Oh come on. She's obviously taking these pictures herself. Come in, your fifteen minutes are up.
posted by reklaw at 4:25 PM on July 12, 2006


1. Pass off banal gimmick as performance art: gain publicity.
2. Grow tired of gimmick, flog dead garden gnome instead: more publicity.
3. Retrieve or have ugly dress returned somehow: make the papers again.
4. Auction dress on eBay: profit!
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:36 PM on July 12, 2006


I like her, like the dress and like the project. She's a lesbian, delmoi, so we can't blame a husband.
posted by Sassenach at 5:57 PM on July 12, 2006


14:59...
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:35 PM on July 12, 2006


> God, people have too much free time...

Yes. They should be tied down, doing things they don't want to do instead of having projects and activities that speak to and for them.

This comment will always be, and always has been, to me, the most inane thing any one person can say about any other person.

Everything worth experiencing in the world that was created by someone else could have only been created because they had "too much free time."
posted by user92371 at 8:40 PM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]


The people suggesting that she's doing it herself, to gain more attention, strike me as being overly cynical. The lady's an artist, with other artists as friends. The "undressing" party was probably attended mainly by artists, any one of whom might have suddenly had a good idea for a joke.
posted by rifflesby at 9:13 PM on July 12, 2006


Everything worth experiencing in the world that was created by someone else could have only been created because they had "too much free time."

Just because some good things have been created in free time, does not mean that everything good is created in free time, and nor does it mean that everything created in free time is good.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:20 PM on July 12, 2006


I really liked the project and thought it had something to say. But this just seems to cheapen it, and it does smell strongly of someone desperately clinging to the spotlight before it passes on.
posted by Ynoxas at 9:40 PM on July 12, 2006


I think it's really sweet that someone nabbed it and is using the hype to do something sweet.
posted by arcticwoman at 11:05 PM on July 12, 2006


WHO FREAKIN CARES????!!!
posted by Doohickie at 8:02 PM on July 13, 2006


ha ha
posted by peptide at 10:07 AM on July 14, 2006


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