Commodifying 1960s/70s nostalgia by slapping a Beatles album cover on a T-shirt and selling it is nothing new. What is new? Bedazzling a pair of jeans with the lyrics of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and selling them for $350.
From The Wall Street Journal:
Lyric Jeans' twist on the trend is to subtly weave the lyrics to famous songs into the designs of high-price shirts, pants, belt buckles, scarves and other apparel…
"The Revolution Collection," as the line is known, comprises clothes featuring the words to 23 hits from the late '60s and early '70s, including six by the Beatles, David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On?"
Each garment carries a copyright credit and the motto "Wear it like you wrote it." The hang tags are designed to look like concert tickets and backstage passes. Retail prices for T-shirts range from $84 to $120; jeans range from $185 to $450. Chunky bronze belt buckles are priced at $300 and up.
A more accurate motto would be "Wear it like you spent $325 on a 'Come Together' belt buckle, in the hope of re-capturing some non-existent 1960s idea of 'revolution,' because that's exactly what you did."
But according to the founder of Lyric Jeans, her products aren't just about wearing songs like you wrote them. They're about something much more annoying: song spirits and stuff:
Lyric founder and President Hanna Rochelle Schmieder believes her products stand out because her designs convey something of a given song's spirit. "Anybody could put Mick Jagger's face on a T-shirt, and it would sell," she says. "Anybody could throw lyrics on a shirt. But the key is to capture the song's essence."
To that end, a line of jeans, blouses and scarves featuring the words to Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" carries a whiff of Haight-Ashbury in its glory days, while "Born to Be Wild" hot pants and leather vests are reminiscent of a glammed-up biker rally.
Right. And these "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" jeans demonstrate how high you'd have to be to think that buying a $350 pair of jeans emblazoned with Beatles' lyrics was a good idea.