Burberry Plaid in Midst of Rebranding Campaign

Republican and Democratic Presidential campaigns are deliberating over which Luxury Product Endorsement will attract the most voters. All three candidates have bids in for Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada, but Democratic strategists advise, “a marketable knockoff will need to be created in order to reach the middle class effectively.” Republicans chuckle at this idea, “You mean, like what we did with Burberry? Great innovation Democrats.”

There is a theory that the Fashion Gods on top of Mt. Madison Ave. had two plans ready at decision of the Bush/Gore election in 2000. If Gore had won we would be living in a different fashion fate, but we have George Bush II and the fashion implications of his reign are best explained in the subversive use of the Burberry Plaid.

Burberry Plaid – its arrival in spring 2002 as an avant-garde accessory- hardly. Burberry plaid is the tradition that never changes. It has been the symbolic classical aristocratic British country club raincoat. Burberry plaid signifies money – because the authentic garments are loads of money. Burberry plaid signifies homogeneity – the plaid does not change from wearer to wearer or season to season (this is either boring or equalizing). A symbol of constancy – like stodgy Grandmother’s hold on the family – she’s had her Burberry raincoat for 50 years!

Now all the chic wear it around their neck without questioning its political implications whatsoever which is either pathetically unthinking in its mass endorsement of conservative snobbery or revolutionary its mass overthrow of symbolic snobbery- I cannot tell.

The theory goes that, as soon as King George W. the II was elected, the fashion Lords and Ladies gave the thumbs up to the Chinese mills to produce as much Burberry plaid knockoff stuff within the profit margin as possible. This signaled the move towards conservative republican politics and the rule of the Bush Family.

But that was just the political catalyst, what has taken off fiscally from that point is that: the masses have bought it. Perhaps it’s the comfortable stability of that khaki, black and white. Or is it the status that precedes the plaid that the wearer believes is a becoming attribute? Is it a desire to look like other Americans - a unifying symbol in these trying and patriotic times, or does it just look good with khaki pants and a white shirt?

On the other hand, the mass production and consumption of Burberry plaid has completely changed its meaning. Once it is available at Walgreens it is no longer exclusive. Once everyone is wearing “the scarf” its old implication is outdated by the present implication – Burberry is for everyone, clutch it with comfort and security because we aren’t insuring much past that.

Everyone bring your umbrella, sassy caps, raincoats, and scarves and hope for bad weather so we can all unite under the Burberry Plaid – and overthrow its repetitive unthinking expensive nature. We can all gather in front of the Burberry store- take our scarves off and wave them in the air declaring independence from the retail price of Burberry plaid. We can all laugh together about how we didn’t pay that much for our scarf. This would be the formal fashion revolution necessary to make Burberry plaid the symbol of a truly fashionable coup d’etat. At the end of the Bush Administration we will take off our Burberry plaid and give it its last hurrah, declare ourselves liberated from its past political implications and hope it will not be an endorsement for the 2008 election.