urban outfitters
- Started
- Last post
- 58 Responses
- xaoscontrol0
UO has cool stuff but I know what you mean. My kid likes their stuff...I think UO is much like a thrift store chain.
This makes me want to get onto a different topic. Sorry,ladies..but those low-rider jeans make asses look bigger. Not sure how...maybe because regular fit jeans tend to go up to the belly-button and therefore the jeans help define a waist....not sure.
I remember when I was a kid, us guys liked the buxom look..guys these daysseem to go for hte 'less is more' thing.
Like I said.....wayyy off topic
- mg330
ditto, I like ladies' low cut jeans, but i don't need to see their norge.
- woodyBatts0
the problem with low rider jeans is that the wrong people wear them...like me, i love to show off my t-bar!
- mg330
what's a tbar???
LOL
- jevad0
"At Urban Outfitters you can buy the neccesary fashion components to look just like Hollywood bad boy Stephen Dorf.
"HAHAHAHAHA
- grayhood0
norge
haha
- woodyBatts0
a t-bar, is the "t" shape you see when the thong tha thong tha thong sticks out!
- mg330
t-bar aka t-back I gotcha!
- mg330
I would just like to see a girl say, "I like wearing low cut jeans so guys can see my bloomers."
- balb0a0
"I have to wonder if they got their models from the teenage anorexic and bulemic camps."
It's true. That's EXACTLY where we got them.
We only use girls who have bones on the outside. We also keep 'em locked up while at the shoot. No food and no daylight until the last possible second.
But not to worry, the next catalog will feature only morbidly obese teens in thongs.
- threadkiller0
hott!
- jevad0
instead of trying to be funny about it - why not tell me why you chose to use girls that look like 14 year old heroin addicts?
Far be it for me to have an opinion of my own - but I find it really irresponsible to be advocating that look.
- DutchBoy0
am i missing something?
the girls on the urbanoutfit site look good, healthy and sweet!
i don't get it.
- jevad0
I'm talking about the catalogue that my wife got in the mail yesterday
- balb0a0
hey jevad -
Sorry, I just got out of a meeting...
I wasn't trying to be funny at all, just sarcastic. Your initial posting was a bit too shrill to warrant a serious response.
If in fact you're not just trolling, maybe we could talk about it in a way that's not so um... dramatic?
We pick our models the same way as everyone else... a combination of books, polaroids and jpegs sent to us by the agencies... and the occasional open casting call (which is much more effective IMO).
There's no BIG NEFARIOUS AGENDA to pick "anorexic and bulemic" girls. To be honest, there's not enough detail in their sample shots to determine bicep diameter.
And also, if you know anything about the industry, you'll know that agencies regularly misrepresent measurements. So you never know quite what you're gonna get.
We spend a lot of energy trying to pick people that will best represent the product we're selling -- and the feel of the brand.
Sometimes models show up thinner than we expected, sometimes thicker. Either way we have to compensate to get the product looking as good as possible.
But we're not going to shut down a location shoot and wait an extra day for backup just because a model shows up looking different than their card.
I work with new models every single week. Only a handful have EVER seemed unhealthy or eating disorder prone.
So I guess I don't really understand what's got you so bent about this catalog. Is there a particular image? I don't really see any "15-year old heroin addicts" in there...
Actually i've never met a 15-year old heroin addict. I know a few 24 year old addicts, and they don't look like that. They're usually dirty, have bad teeth, and try to steal your Playstation...
- Skylark0
word! now, when are you going to start selling humidus t-shirts? heh?
- jevad0
lol balboa - thanks for the reply.
I'm not trolling at all...and not trying to pick a fight..I actually forgot you worked there! So sorry if I offended you..that was not my intention.
What struck my wife and I as we were looking through the catalogue last night was how emaciated and seriously thin some of the models looked in the photos...and I guess it just irked me because I'm one of those guys who get's pissed off by the media constantly telling us how we are supposed to look and feel, and what we are supposed to wear.
The models, the girls anyway, also looked really young...which again caught my attention and got me thinking about UO's target audience and how you guys are targetting them.
So in conclusion, no offense meant - it's just one, inconsequential, man's opinion on the state of 'fashion' and how it is presented these days.
I used to like UO and bought a few things from there in teh past - but it's all gone a bit 'flowery' over the past couple years for my personal tastes.
- Skylark0
mr Balb0a. Do you know who designed the Taiconaut´s costume for the first Chinese spacetrip? Who let the chinaman up in space looking sharpe?
- Skylark0
You see, our T-shirts came well i hand. We where invitede to work with the designing and specialconstruction of the clothings, and stayed for almost two years in their lovely, but crowded land. During this time we made a lot of really close friends, President HängPung (read HangScrotum), became our personal ShiGong instructor, and ricewine companion. And late Mister Bruce Lee´s sister, Bridget Lee, had us come visiting her up in the mountines for a romantic Yak-hunting expedition. But even the merriest story has an end, and after the succesful rocketeering of Mr ShingShong, we flew home to Sweden again.
- balb0a0
Skylark:
Cosmonauts or not...you rule the skool.Jevad:
No prob... i'm not offended at all.We get TONS of hatemail here, not to mention the usual bitter hipster "they bogarted my identity, man" rants.
I'm not exactly a UO superpatriot myself. And believe me, I can be as critical of the industry as the next guy. I'd be stupid not to be.
My only point is that we don't collectively as a company make decisions to push an unattainable body image on our customers (even unconsciously).
The internal opinion of the last catalog was that it did come off a bit "too young" for our perceived customer. The next one will skew slightly older (hopefully).
I also agree that UO has shifted its focus. That was actually a deliberate strategic business move. I think at some point (around 50 stores or so) that it just became impossible to maintain any kind of indie agenda (if there ever was one).
This used to kill me daily, because I always held out hope that we could recapture our old customer base... but at the end of the day, the design team doesn't control the overall direction of the product line (which plays a huge role in who our customer is), so my opinion don't mean dooky.
One other thought: as a designer, part of your job is to dictate the form of communication. I mean, at some point in your process, you're going to "push an image" on a client, or on the public, right?
It's up to you to decide whether to buy something or not. I don't think that all retailers are trying to "tell you how to look and feel". They're just hoping you buy stuff.
Incidentally, where do you get most of your clothing? It's pretty hard to stay brand-free these days...