SHIT POSTING
By Victoria Nergaard
Oh merde, the luxury brands are shitposting again.
A walk down Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris will temporarily immerse you in the latest offerings and campaigns of the world’s most famous couture houses. Most brand’s identities are to be expected. Chanel is pearls and tweed. Prada is utilitarian with a twist. Balenciaga is trying a little too hard. And we always know what to expect from traditionalist Hermès, a brand that has remained staunchly for the wealthy, offering the world’s famously exclusive, pricey, and bland Birkin bag, and logoed blankets made for duchesses to cry million-dollar tears atop.
And yet, this spring, the window offered something that felt slightly astray from the usual image of aristocracy. Sure, the window is a barn, and only a member of a “notable family” would feel so comfortable on horseback wearing silk, but amongst a scene familiar to the hyper-wealthy, Hermès placed a steaming pile of horseshit. Literally. Well maybe not literally, the likelihood of this hyper-realistic poop prop being real is quite low for practical reasons, yet it certainly looks real. This believable shift from class to ass could be described as irl shitposting.
Shitposting, a term originating on Twitter, is one of the many ways to engage with the internet in a most meaningless meaningful way. Though it can’t entirely be defined, one may say that shitposting is the art of taking utter nonsense and sprinkling it with elements that tap into the cultural zeitgeist to be relatable, yet goofy. This modern form of online provocation additionally ties to the 20th-centruy art movement Dadaism in which art was intentionally low-quailty or offensive to provoke the art world. Either way it’s really not that deep. From finstas, to curated authenticity, from rat girls to absurdist TikToks, the shitposting genre is perhaps now the highest form of art across social platforms for Millennials and Gen Z. Or maybe it’s just some dumb bullshit. For the average Hermès buyer, the horse stable is familiar, and for the rest of us, a famed designer plopping some horse shit in their window display is honestly kinda funny, even if it is an intentional spectacle. And no, it’s not a comment on the lifestyle of their consumer base.
More than ever, fashion has fallen way of the spectacle, with jaw dropping events and campaigns superseding the actual products produced and sold by brands. For Hermès, the fare rarely changes, as their bags and printed silk scarves will always be a mainstay for the elite, and likely never a coveted item for the edgier youth. Hermès has continuously built cultural capital by aligning itself with the more classical ideal of couture, maintaining aristocratic aesthetics that are exclusive, unavailable to all, and highest in quality.
While this may have been the original intention of couture, Millennial and Gen Z brands, and the maisons who want to attract this generation, have stepped away from class division as a selling point, since these generations no longer dream of belonging to this class, but rather dream of destroying it. So how do you maintain cultural capital and relevance to the generation who defines what’s en vogue when you represent this reprehensible division? Denounce glamour, stop taking yourself so seriously and join in on the national sport of the youth: shitposting, actual shit included.