Stitched up
July 3, 2018 1:10 AM   Subscribe

 
What delightful chutzpah! Worth reading to the end. It's put a smile on my dial, it has.
posted by Thella at 1:37 AM on July 3, 2018 [10 favorites]


Aw man that ended really, really well. Good on ya, mate!
posted by darkstar at 1:39 AM on July 3, 2018 [10 favorites]


I'm always surprised by how effective pretending you belong, treating those who question you not with fear but arrogance and generally not slinking around in the background but pressing forwards and being part of things works as an infiltration technique.

I would like to say though that I think a lot of it depends on the power wielded by, well, the powerful and their expectations of ease of life. I think if I was one of the relevant ID or ticket checkers, it wouldn't be so much that at I was convinced as such, as that I was afraid of the consequences of accidentally wronging the powerful.

It's why there's always something lovely to me about when a manager or superior reinforces the rules, says "yes I'm your boss, but I didn't show ID and you were right to not serve me, that's your job", instead of saying "how dare you hold up X with your petty checks".
posted by AnhydrousLove at 1:42 AM on July 3, 2018 [16 favorites]


Those jeans would go great with a "Beverly Hills Polo Club" golf shirt from TJ Maxx.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:44 AM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


Surely smiling in the photographs is a dead give-away? Real fashion people only ever look pouty and unimpressed.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:55 AM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


At 6'3" and 140 pounds, my craggy cheekbones and I did some runway stuff in the New York shows in 82-83 for Issey Miyake. It was just this louche then, and I daresay it's multiplied exponentially in the ensuing decades.
Fake it til you make it, indeed.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:18 AM on July 3, 2018 [12 favorites]


Weirdly, this reminds me of certain parts of academia, including publishing and administration. I wonder if every industry has these spots where there is nothing there except what we (for some value of “we”) decide (or, maybe, agree) is there.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:27 AM on July 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


I snickered throughout this article, but the ending took it a level up from the fake restaurant. <3 That made me very happy; thank you for posting.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:54 AM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


So, he's basically doing post-internet fashion which is actually a pretty fashionable thing to do.
posted by nikaspark at 3:58 AM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


fashion will appropriate him like fashion is wont to do with everything, but he will have moved onto to his next bit of genius faffery which makes him quite great artist IMO.
posted by nikaspark at 4:00 AM on July 3, 2018 [7 favorites]


I'm not sure how I feel about this, to be honest. The world works on networks of trust, and the assumption that people are generally not trying to deceive you. And a world that does not work that way is a far worse world to live in. But of course that can be manipulated to gain access or advantage. It's how con artists work. It's how the current Republican machine works. So, I don't know, this is a fun little story, but it makes me uncomfortable too.
posted by Nothing at 4:01 AM on July 3, 2018 [10 favorites]


> Samizdata:
"So, where are the MeFis in complaining that it sucks when people have fun taking advantage of other people's ignorance?"

> Nothing:
"I'm not sure how I feel about this, to be honest. The world works on networks of trust, and the assumption that people are generally not trying to deceive you. And a world that does not work that way is a far worse world to live in. But of course that can be manipulated to gain access or advantage. It's how con artists work. It's how the current Republican machine works. So, I don't know, this is a fun little story, but it makes me uncomfortable too."


Cheers, I was getting nervous there for a bit. Piece of advice. Don't start reading the Langoliers then get no sleep then snark on Metafilter.
posted by Samizdata at 4:08 AM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


I'm typically against the whole "let's make fun of naive fashion people!" thing, but Oobah Butler was as much a part of the joke as anyone else. And other than go to some parties and such, the worst thing he did was try on a dress. He wasn't taking money from anyone. He gave away a pair of jeans (I guess?) to that model but it's not like he was actually trying to sell them to anyone. And it seemed like if he got caught, he got caught.

This felt like it had a kind, playful heart and the ending was really sweet. I'm glad he found the real person behind the jeans. (And this makes me ... kind of want a pair.)

I felt that way about the TripAdvisor piece, too -- a joke turned into a way of actually trying to understand and connect with people and the world.
posted by darksong at 4:35 AM on July 3, 2018 [12 favorites]


This made me smile!
posted by ChuraChura at 4:47 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


The end of the video is particularly nice. Tricking people also makes me uncomfortable, but I feel like this is redeemed at the end.
posted by lauranesson at 4:52 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm not sure how I feel about this, to be honest. The world works on networks of trust, and the assumption that people are generally not trying to deceive you. And a world that does not work that way is a far worse world to live in.

But they have best selling jeans.
posted by unliteral at 5:00 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


He's like Sacha Baron Cohen, but with fewer visible penises.
posted by delfin at 5:03 AM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


I do remember this guy's restaurant. I remember how he shit all over a vacationing couple's only night in London so he could play a joke on them by ruining their dinner plans. Ah, good times!
posted by haileris23 at 5:08 AM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


To his credit, his head really does look like a ham.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:17 AM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


My takeaway was that the fashion people were pretty quickly accepting of him, at worst a bit baffled because they didn't really know who he was. Good on the fashion people.

I really did like the ending though.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:28 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


> He's like Sacha Baron Cohen, but with fewer visible penises.

And less tired racism
posted by Borborygmus at 5:38 AM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


Based on a grand total of two articles I've read about people going to Fashion Week, my expectation is that part of the reason he was so quickly accepted is not because he successfully conned his way in on the back of being a genius designer, but because meeting random people you otherwise wouldn't ever see is sort of what Fashion Week is for, and he seemed fun. My guess is, it's like a sci-fi convention for fashion people, and he turned up with the fashion equivalent of a ridiculously detailed Winter Soldier costume and was pretending like he was into it.
posted by Merus at 5:43 AM on July 3, 2018 [15 favorites]


I agree, it wasn't a con so much as getting lucky enough to bluff his way past the few gatekeepers that existed. It sounds like a lot of the events are small boutique parties that don't even really have much of a credentialing process beyond an e-vite that is easily shared.

I liked that he didn't really try to turn it into a "gotcha" piece about how haute designers being unable to recognize a knock-off brand when they see one. In the end, no one was really the butt of the joke, and it is kind of cool to see an outsider's perspective of the scene.
posted by Think_Long at 5:57 AM on July 3, 2018 [9 favorites]


"Real fashion people only ever look pouty and unimpressed."

So much this, to the extent that I generally identify perfume adverts as those featuring cross looking people.
In fact it makes the world a more interesting place if you see that pouty fashion look as being a bit sad and cross.

It's sort of the case across the board. There's an advert arms race trying to refine adverts to give a certain impression, ut they're always inside the context of adverts. So if you don't see adverts very much then when you do see them, they come across as trite and silly and confusing. Goofy looking satisfied people in cars and pouty looking sad people standing on rocks in the ocean to sell perfume.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 6:19 AM on July 3, 2018


The American version: Hey, guess who's the President?
posted by Naberius at 6:28 AM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


Now = October 2017.
posted by 41swans at 6:31 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


I thought this happened last year. Turns out they didn't film it the first time around. This year they went back to Fashion Week with a camera in tow, met up again with Adam at Denim World, and did a fashion photo shoot: video and new Peviani website (with contact info all going to Denim World).
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 6:37 AM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


Ironically enough, my takeaway was that the emperor has no clothes.
posted by Dysk at 7:16 AM on July 3, 2018


Real fashion people only ever look pouty and unimpressed.

check out all these unimpressed pouters
posted by kenko at 7:29 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Fella in the right in your last link does indeed exemplify that 'must not smile' thing perfectly.
posted by Dysk at 7:36 AM on July 3, 2018


He. Wore. Short. Pants.
posted by Nelson at 7:45 AM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


Fella in the right in your last link does indeed exemplify that 'must not smile' thing perfectly.

He's posted a lot of pics of himself smiling with customers / buyers, but not to his official instagram, and I couldn't find them again :/
posted by kenko at 9:30 AM on July 3, 2018


but not to his official instagram

I think that might be somewhat illustrative of the unsmiling professional image the original pouty/unimpressed comment was about.
posted by Dysk at 9:33 AM on July 3, 2018


This reminds me of *someone's* shoplifting strategy when they were young. Waltz in like you own the place, act like you know exactly what you are doing, and you too can take a life-sized cardboard cutout of Angeline Jolie right out from under the nose of the Blockbuster staff.
posted by arcticwoman at 11:09 AM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


"Commes Des Garcons, the Russian embassy!" He taps his watch and opens his side bag, allowing me a peek of a Vladimir Lenin costume: "I must get changed!"

I thought the piece was hilarious, but I kind of wish the above passage also had a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style option, like so:

“If you decide to visit the Russian Ebassy to see what the denim-clad man holding the Lenin costume has planned, turn to page 24.”
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:04 PM on July 3, 2018 [9 favorites]


He. Wore. Short. Pants.

Sadly, I believe that's a thing now.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:57 PM on July 3, 2018


I think that might be somewhat illustrative of the unsmiling professional image the original pouty/unimpressed comment was about.

This is literally the next photo on that page, I just don't happen to like it. This is the previous one, in which he seems (to me) clearly amused. The pictures I referred to were sent to his mailing list, which of course is a professional outlet as well.

Of course, everyone is ignoring the other pictures I linked, for some reason.
posted by kenko at 3:18 PM on July 3, 2018


Waltz in like you own the place, act like you know exactly what you are doing, and you too can take a life-sized cardboard cutout of Angeline Jolie right out from under the nose of the Blockbuster staff.

Ughhhh. Do you know how much trouble I got in when someone stole the Phantom Menace standee from my bookstore when I was manager on duty?? A LOT. It’s was a crazy busy Friday night, we were short staffed, I was helping actual paying customers, and yet I’m responsible for guarding a gd cardboard prop. That sucked.
posted by greermahoney at 12:13 AM on July 4, 2018


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