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Let’s Get Non-Rowdy
We’re not surprised that writer Cintra Wilson, shopping for the NY Times Style section last week, felt out of place during her visit to Derek Lam‘s flagship house of luxe on Crosby Street in NYC’s SoHo. After all, let’s be honest. Few would.
But we’ve been struggling for days to figure out why Wilson, while characterizing Lam’s high-cotton world (and rather resentfully so), also took this sideways potshot at his “Eastern” demographic:
“Mr. Lam’s flagship is his version of that genteel world where the rich are still as spoiled and sheltered as they ever were; his customer is a precious orchid, lovingly tended and exhibited under his enormous acrylic bell.This recipe for femininity looks, to me, as if it is aimed toward a stereotypical Hong Kong billionaire’s wife. The clothes evoke a demure, under-control, decidedly non-rowdy (read: non-Western) type of woman who appreciates her role as an ornament of great value, and sits prettily and quietly in Gulfstream jets.”
Funnily enough, Jen and I are actually quite familiar with a Hong Kong billionaire woman or two. And let me tell y’all, those bitchez iz crazay! They’re not demure, nor under-control, nor “decidedly non-rowdy” (gosh, the more I think about it, the more Wilson’s description seems fitting of Kate Gosselin).
…So does that make them, um, Western?
[NY Times: Critical Shopper - Luxury in a Bell Jar]
Source
Thanks, Livia!
Filed under: Cintra Wilson, Crosby Street, Death to Luxury, derek lam, Eastern vs. Western, Elitism, Flagship Stores, High Class Problems, Huh?, NYC, Ornamentals, Snark, The New York Times, This is Bullshit
Good Timing
The NYT editors must have read our letter!
Before: kitschy “Chinaman” chic
After: Just the kitsch without all of that crazy racial slur baggage
Now if only Michelle Malkin will start taking advice from our letters and off herself. Then we’ll be in great shape.
Filed under: Corrections, Kitsch, Letters of Concern, Michelle Malkin, Racial Slurs, Squinty Chinamen, Suicide, The New York Times
Sign of the Times
Dear NYT:
Not good use word C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N to describe decoration. Word “Chinaman” is U-N-N-A-C-C-E-P-T-A-B-L-E and O-F-F-E-N-S-I-V-E to A-S-I-A-N P-E-O-P-L-E.
Sincerey,
A Gook and a Chinaman
Source
Thanks, Alice!
Filed under: Bad Phrasing, Interior Design, Racial Slurs, Squinty Chinamen, The New York Times, Whooppsie, Words that Should Die
BABEWATCH: Michiko Kakutani
Name: Michiko Kakutani
Hails from: New Haven, CT
Occupation: Hardass Asian Book Reviewer
Why She’s a Babe: Because the 53 year-old, Yale-educated NY Times critic is notoriously hard to please. And she’s not afraid to savage overly-hyped douchebag writers who are used to being fawned over. (A few years ago, the late Norman Mailer called her a “token” and a “one-woman kamikaze.”) Also, her look is so very trapped-in-the-80′s. And because Michiko is something like a literary dominatrix who enjoys beating the shit out of books–and sometimes that brings pain, but other times, pleasure.
Read Michiko’s latest reviews here. And bring band-aids.
Filed under: Books, Dominatrices, Hardass Asian Book Reviewers, Michiko Kakutani, Norman Mailer, The New York Times, The Pleasure Pain Principle, Yale
