Marc Jacobs & Posh Spice: Ironic or Serious?

I LOVE the new Marc Jacobs campaign with Victoria Beckham. My more stylish friend HATES it. Why?

I love it because I think Juergen Teller (photographer) and Marc Jacobs are taking the Mickey, but in a way that still screams "Marc Jacobs is stylish." I don't think that they take the Mickey directly out of VB, but more out of contemporary culture itself. I believe that Teller and Jacobs have used VB in an ironic sense, portraying her as a product, whilst showing off their own product (clothes, shoes). The photos directly question VB's place in the fashion world by highlighting the less stylish features to which her WAG status is stereotypically related - Teller shows her bra straps, dresses her in fushia pink and sprays her with fake tan. Furthermore putting a flower on her head makes her look like a little doll which reflects the way that she is played out in the media - a void papparzzi puppet with a permanent pout to match. Teller also highlights her famous miniature figure by putting her in a giant shopping bag...again highlighting (in directly or not) another probelm with contemporary culture - undereating and over spending.

My friend that hates the ads, on the other hand, thinks that using VB is a huge mistake. She thinks that VB is too tacky for an Marc Jacobs ad and that Posh undermines the chic style of the brand. This friend wears a lot of Chanel, so maybe she's more target audience...in which case if Marc Jacob's is supposed to epitomise understated style, then showing VB in couture is indeed an error.

Suffice to say, using VB in his ads made both of us do a double take when we were pouring over Vogue, and usually we'd just turn the page, as we do the rest of the 1000 0000 press ads there are before you get to any of the stuff that you pay for.... Yay for posh spice :) booo to Marc Jacob's price tags!