Limed for the Truth

The Generation Gap

When I worked at the Gap, my friends rarely asked me for my discount; when I started working at Urban Outfitters, even people I considered mere acquaintances started asking to use my discount. It was always so confusing, as both were similarly priced and had similar clothing quality. Their styles didn’t seem that different when examined on someone’s body. Everyone, however, seemed to be so interested in my job at Urban Outfitters. There seemed to be some generational alignment towards that store. It seemed clearer though, when I recall my shock during my interview.

I was more or less explicitly told not to look for customers to sell to. I was quite shocked. At Gap(2) the managers wanted us to approach all customers to welcome them to the store and lookout for any customers he might even have the slightest desire to buy the smallest article of clothing.(3) . However, Urban Outfitters did not want you to try and create sales by forcing a customer into buying an item they don’t want, and the managers certainly didn’t want us trying to mix and match to make outfits for the customers. While initially taken aback, the philosophies of the two companies seemed to be much clearer when you see it from the inside.

Gap focuses on a “one size fits all” approach. For every piece of clothing that Gap produces, there is always something to match it. They will never introduce a skirt that does not a matching blouse. Similar patterns can be seen throughout the store. Every season, you can go to Gap and know that you will be able to find the same color v-neck that you got last spring. Every single day of the year you will be able to buy a black or white pocket t. Pink henleys will always be in stock for women. And when something unique is brought out? There will always be an antipodean piece to match it.(4) Gap produces the same items throughout the country. The backstock for some of the more popular items is enormous. Indeed, if an item in a specific market gets incredibly popular, Gap has secret sweatshops that can be quickly set up and shut down in any given city.(5) Gap’s perennial best-seller is the hoodie that says GAP in big block letters. Gap is a brand, and wants you to know it. Everything in the store is made by Gap. Lots of things say Gap. By buying Gap products, you agree that you align yourself with Gaps ideas.

Urban Outfitters, on the other hand, panders to more unique fashions. There are completely different styles. A hip-hop loving sneaker head can find his fashion just as easily as a glitchin’ hipster. They sell Air Jordans and Betsy Johnson dresses. Some customers will even come in wanting both.(6) Urban Outfitters can do this because they sell various labels at their store. Some, like, Free People, are actually owned by Urban Outfitters.(7) Some brands, though, are even bigger than Urban Outfitters itself – Levis, Nike, to name a few. Urban Outfitters fashion philosophy is to bring together many different desired items into one place to centralize shopping. This is not the centralization of the Gap, where everything marches forward behind a monolith marked with a G, A, and P. Urban Outfitters wants to bring together the various clothing articles that make up common fashions. When the hipster look changed from the tight tight American Apparel look to a more hip hop look, with hoodies and Nikes, Urban Outfitters was the only store able to match the trend immediately. While the store, due to its size, helped influence and direct the trend, it was a consumer-based trend, which Urban Outfitters jumped on. Urban Outfitters will also release items that are incompatible with almost everything else in the store. Urban Outfitters, unlike the Gap, is fine with competition. Whereas the Gap desires everything you wear to be under their label, Urban Outfitters is fine with just one item you wear carrying their name – or, more specifically, their associated brands. Urban Outfitters just wants their article of clothing to be the one that catches people’s attention.

This fashion philosophy plays into their general sales philosophy. Gap wants its sales associate(8) to sell to the customers. They receive great deals of training – upwards of twenty hours paid training. Managers work very closely with their employees to make sure that everything is done the Gap way. EVERY customer is approached and solicited for help. Employees are taught to create an atmosphere where the customer is free to mix and match, try on outfits, and fantasize about the dreams that these outfits adorn.(9) Customers are encouraged to try on clothes at any opportunity. Gap wants you to find an outfit that makes you look great, and, indeed, there are many outfits at Gap that you will look stellar in. This strategy is multifaceted: it increases the average transaction – the measuring stick from store to store and a good indicator of overall brand performance on the whole; the more items a customer has, the more items they are likely to add on; most importantly, it creates brand awareness, where people associate Gap with a certain image.

It is this image that Gap strives ever so hard to master. This image starts most visibly with the employees. The dress code is very inclusive, with a large amount of restrictions and regulations. Until recently, men had to wear pants year round. Employees are required to wear Gap of “Gap-like” clothing.(10) No other companies logos may be shown in the store. Gap tries to sell their image to an even larger audience through intense levels of advertising. It is constantly advertising in magazines and billboards, and every few seasons will launch a massive television ad campaign. Indeed, some of these campaigns have become legendary and ingrained into the cultural consciousness.(11) Gap maintains their image through homogenization. Ideally, Gap will be the same across the world. Every Gap store will take its design from a specific set of designs, and will look like every other Gap store.(12) Everything is made in Gap factories, from the clothes to the hanging bar. In a sense, working at a Gap store, whether you are a sales associate or a store manager, means that you are assembling Gap. You literally construct the store, as al the layout materials have been sent to you by Gap. You set up windows, you place tables and benches, you hang shelves. Then you lay out the clothes the way Gap design teams have instructed. Then you assemble yourself according to Gap philosophy.

Urban Outfitters takes a different approach: they let their image sell itself. There is no dress code are Urban Outfitters. Employees are encouraged to have their own style to such a point that it becomes a desideratum for working there. Any brand can be worn, because Urban Outfitters is not technically a “brand” of clothing. Urban Outfitters uses very little advertising. They let their name ring out like some mystical fashion mantra, where the uninitiated see only an array of colors, designs, and fashion. They let their image change with the seasons and current employees, allowing them to be adaptable to the inevitable and ineluctable change of fashion sense. They also let their customers choose. Managers hammer in to their employees heads that it is NOT their job to try and convince a shopper to buy something. They also do not have their own credit card, unlike Gap, and do not try and rope their customers into literal wage-slavery to pay it off. They also have too many styles to have one typical customer, so the employees cannot dictate what the customer wants. The customer has the chance to create a fantasy image of themselves, where they operate in a world not currently their own. Susie Prarie can come in and play hipster for twenty minutes. If she has the cash, Susie Prarie can actually become a hipster.

This new approach to clothes has had a tremendous effect. Urban Outfitters has aligned themselves with the new generation, usually termed Generation Y, and it is paying off. Gap is viewed as old or boring by many young people. The basics are hard to be enticing or interesting. Gap’s sales have plummeted, seeing their stock drop to a third of its price in 2000. with the company thinking about declaring bankruptcy. Urban’s stock, however, has risen almost 800%, reaching the same price as Gap.(13)
If we look into specifics, perhaps we can find exactly why Generation Y has chosen Urban Outfitters over Gap, and what it means. Tee shirts, the basic standby of every young persons wardrobe, could give a particular insight into this. Gap’s tee shirts are the stable of its role as a basics store. Every single day of the year, you will be able to go in and find crew necks, pocket tees, and v-necks in about thirteen or so season appropriate colors. The tee shirts are mass-produced, and have little sense of individuality.(14)Urban Outfitters, however, has undoubtedly wittier tee shirts, and reach a larger market with less production. Urban has firmly entrenched itself in the ironic/graphic tee shirt market. These offer a chance for the wearer to express a closer alignment of their personality than just Crystal Blue. There are more options, which allow a greater number of people to find the tee shirt that feels closest to their personality. It also enters into a signifier / signified relationship. When a shirt is just colors, you are really limited to biological makeup to wear the shirt that looks best on you. A shirt like “I’m With Stupid” will elicit laughs, but there is not a real invitation to personal interaction.(15) Peter Manning, in the same article, says that tee shirts are a “crying out for validation.” However, if you wear a tee shirt that contains some cryptic, esoteric knowledge, you declare which specialized niche or cabal. I know that when I see someone wearing a “Talk Nerdy to Me,” it’s someone that my brother would love to be friends with; if someone is wearing a shirt that displays the man – elephant from Death From Above 1979 or a analogue hookup, I know that is someone that I might want to talk to. If someone is wearing a shirt that says “COLLEGE” a la John Beluschi in animal house, I know it’s someone to avoid. If someone is wearing a shirt that features “Beirut,” but is referencing beerpong, I know its someone that wouldn’t be in my MySpace top 8; of course, if “Beirut” is mentioning Zach Condon, the baroque pop guitarist/trumpet player/mandolinist/jew harpist who uses the nom de guerre “Beirtut”, then there’s a good chance they could be.(16)

In the same vein as the ironic tee shirt is the 80’s revival tee shirt, which Urban Outfitters sells as well. The Whitesnake Slip of the Tongue ’87 tour shirt could sell for almost $100 if its authentic, and probably about $35 even if it’s not. However, most people under thirty are able to discern between the mocking and the appreciation. My friend’s Ronald Regan tee shirt is clearly for comedic value. The plastic David Byrne bright green sunglasses that I want are not, however. Sometimes it can be hard to discern. What can be said of the ascendance of the calculator watch, the once clear indicator of a tried and true nerd, to the pinnacle of hip? Or the neon hoodie with cartoon characters? Or bowling shoes?

Gap, as having existed in the 80’s, cannot go back and use these trends. Gap cannot operate historicitically,(17) as it betrays the image it has carefully created for itself. Gap wants is customers to think of it as a very temporal company, bringing out the same classics each season. Urban Outfitters works more like a prostitute. It can never completely satisfy the desires of the customer, but by fetishizing certain items – tee shirts, little lawn gnomes, comstume jewelry – they become desires. It is the equivalent of a prostitute, specifically Audrey Ecstavasia’s theory of the Cyborg “Body without Organs.” The cyborg is the mannequin upon which the John places his fantasies. She is not a person, but rather a fleshy simulacrum of a dream sexual identity who never existed in the first place. She changes from customer to customer, never letting them know her, just who she needed to be. Urban Outfitters has thrived on this model. By never establishing an identity for itself, instead letting its customers participate in the ever changing image, Urban Outfitters has connected to the mindset of Generation Y, or, more appropriately, The Generation Formerly Known as Prince (tGFKaP). Much like The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, there seems to be an incredible image construction in the generation that is rapidly ascending into maturity and power. There is much less temporality, and using “A Modest Proposal” ironically has just as much viability as joking about life after Anna Nicole. (18) Urban Outfitters has picked up on this, framing the past and present in the same way; a tee shirt referencing vBlogging gets the same treatment as ones referencing the Pilgrims, Spinal Tap, or Bill Clinton. This fashion schizophrenia mirrors a cultural one, where the Lacanian prophesy of the breakdown in the signifier / signified exchange is fulfilled, and we exist synchronically, somehow operating in a land where only symbols and images exist. My generation, The Generation Formerly Known as Prince, is the first true postmodern generation; we do not see objectivity, and understand that daily interactions are based on image projection: the individual is more conscious about maintaining an image than any previous generation, allowing for a breakdown in the public/private life duality, yet the created image is also closer to his or her true identity than any other generation.(19)

Gotta Catch ’em All!

The phenomena that combined to create the characteristics of tGFKaP(20) started long ago. As new parents saw reports on the news of the lost “War on Drugs” and satanic Heavy Metal songs, they began to realize that Generation X was a lost cause, and saw to it that they did things differently. It began in the school systems and childhood education. Sesame Street tried to teach Generation X about social issues, getting celebrities such as Jessie Jackson. The focus of Sesame Street when I started watching it, however, had shifted to me. Shows like Barney and Reading Rainbow told me how special and unique I was. In school, we had ELP, the “Extended Learning Program,” where we learned how to harness our creativity to create unique expressions of ourselves. The numbers of Montessori Schools steadily increased throughout the late 80’s and into the 90’s, with the first Montessori High School established in 1994.(21) Before tGFKaP could even understand the concept of individuality, they understood that they were individuals.

Many of our fads highlight the nature of our generational character. With the tamogachi, we cared for digital animalistic blips with such passion, leaving out parents bewildered at how we could treat something fake with the same intensity that we treat something real. So to was it for the Sims, where op-ed writers criticized the young people who would rather stay inside playing make-believe than actually live life. What they mistook for laziness and lethargy was actually a training program to introduce us to the simulacra of postmodern existence. Pokemon, that great teacher of life lessons for the Generation Princer, was crucial to our cultural makeup. We were taught to be “The very best,” and that we were the chosen Pokemon trainer. But to get there, we had to catch every last pokemon to have the greatest and strongest collection. We had to specialize in a class(22), like Magic: The Gathering, but also complete the pokedecks.

When we were entering middle school, we found that, while we were individuals, other people where individuals to. If we wanted to fit in, we better find out how to sacrifice our individuality a little to fit in. However, this did not become a submission to the mainstream as it was for previous generation. Rather, children had to find which click was appropriate for them. Unlike in previous generation, when this was judged from up top (ie, the popular kids) in some sort of manifestation of predestination, but a conscious decision on our parts. Children already knew what group they belonged to, because they knew their image. Frankly, there is no social scorn associated with being a geek now, as everybody plays video games, and geek chic has been the fashion for more than a few seasons now.

So far this sounds like good old Generation Y, the lovable generation of overachievers. William Strauss characterized my generation, which he referred to as the Millenials, as “Cute. Cheerful. Scoutlike. Wanted,” and mentioned the hope and wonder that older generations heaped on us.(23) Yet things changed. We become more and more cognizant of crafting our images. We accepted the burden that we had, the success that Boomers willed upon us so that they could retire carefree without worry of Social Security. But we learned how to hide as well. We learned from the media. We learned just what the definition of “is” is. We saw how events like 9/11 can be manipulated by a warhawk congress to get what it wanted. We learned that there was no truth to be had from the powers that be. We learned from the ensuing media wars how to spin something properly, and the Daily Show taught us how to detect the spin of the bumbling boomers, so that we could become tighter artificers of our image. Paris Hilton taught us that an image can only be harmed if you view something as harmful. The image, the projected image, is at your disposal. As long as you keep projecting it, it cannot be harmed.

This is most evident in the college application process. It is well known that application numbers are up, and acceptance numbers are down. This is because Princers know that they have to go to college, and probably get a masters degree as well. Princers also know that college is not about demonstrating the strength of your achievements; getting into college is about demonstrating the strength of your image creation. We built up resumes and took all the AP credits we could. We took SAT classes. We were taught how to write the College Essay in our English classes. We also told that colleges wanted “unique students”, and this advice met a complete agreement. Students clamored to sign up for fencing classes, oboe lessons, Byzantine art classes. We wanted to show that the college needed us, as we are individuals who have something to bring to the college.
Generation Y is who you think we are, because we want you to view us as Generation Y: lovable; articulate; determined; and, most importantly, not Generation X. Like the powerful leaders throughout history though, we do not let anyone see the true us. We give people what they want to know. Generation Y is the image. The Generation Formerly Known as Prince is the image constructor.

Mama, Won’t You Leave those Castles in the Sky and Burning?

There is indeed, however, great hope for tGFKaP. Ever since animals started courtship rituals, the projected image has been part of social culture. The mass appeal image of Leave it to Beaver is just as strangling as the current persona structure. However, the there is much more construction involved with the projected image and identity now. Through the internet and wikipedia, we have learned about all life has to offer, and we are much readier to join a niche which seems the closest to the center of our character.

Indeed, it can be argued whether tGFKNaP even recognizes the mainstream. If we place the oldest Princers at around 27 or 28 (24) then they are the dominant force in the all-powerful Males aged 18-35 demographic. This has manifested itself. There is no consistent chart topper in music anymore. Modest Mouse debuted their new album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, at number one. Modest Mouse used to be a staple of indie record stores and college radio, but never would have dreamed of Billboard success. However, those college kids who listened to them still kept tabs on them through MySpace and Pitchfork, and high school kids who found out about them through message boards were excited to finally experience Modest Mouse as an active force in their lives, rather than some found record.

This explosion of “indie” music as a genre can be seen throughout the music world. The Arcade Fire, a baroque pop band from Montreal, debuted their sophomore album at number two. The Arcade Fire, hardly a mainstream sounding band, what with orchestral strings, squeezeboxes, and complex arrangements. The Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse have incredibly different sounds, though, as do they from LCD Soundsystem, who debuted his Brian Eno inspired dance record at 36th. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who actually established their own record company to get their album out, debuted their Talking Heads loving sophomore album at 47(25). Smaller venues like the Knitting Factory are making more money than ever, and iTunes is cashing in on the long tail of indie music.

Indie should not be taken as a style, however. It is, again, a constructed idea, rather than a specific style. It is not something that will replace the mainstream. There is a plethora of real styles, ever-fragmenting, within the label of “indie”: grindcore, dream pop, trip hop, neo-country blip, lap pop, technodrone, not new wave. Mashup artists like Girl Talk actually mix these styles together, feeling as comfortable with Neutral Milk Hotel as he is with George Benson. It is this cultural cannibalism that results from societal schizophrenia. There is no need to establish time or alignment to a certain type of music. When one is comfortable with their image and who they are as a person, there is no crisis or fear of having the periphery of the persona altered a little bit. I feel much more at home at a Menomena concert than a Wu –Tang Clan one, but that does not mean I didn’t have a great time at both. The Princer’s duality of acknowledging the infinite number of splinter groups and comfort of moving through any number of them has helped with the destruction of the mainstream.

This process would not be possible without the notion of hyperspace and the long tail. Everyone today is connected. Bands in Portland have just a big of a fan base in New York. iTunes allows almost every song you could want to be at your fingertips. By finding a band you like, Pandora.com can help you find similar, less famous bands. You can both the type of music that fits your identity, and the type of music that your identity needs. The long tail never existed in the modern world. TV and brick and mortar stores simply couldn’t support things that didn’t pay immediate dividends. However, amazon.com has the ability to stock a book that only a few people might need. This person may never touch a John Grisham novel, yet will buy all the books on the Charles, Duke of Gloucester available. Through Google and Wikipedia, we can also find what exists at the veeery end of the tail. We can find even the most obscure band on MySpace. We can learn about every type of Gruyere on a cheese aficionado’s blog.

With this comfort of operating in a persona that we feel represents us, we do not feel awkward showing this personal image in public. Much like Prince, who was comfortable with his crafted image enough to romp around with his behind viewed to the public and simply exude sexuality, even the most humble twee girl feels comfortable having a youtube video blog. This is not narcissism or shamelessness. It is a radically new way of looking at the world. We are comfortable enough with ourselves that we do not mind who sees us. The girl who has scantily clad pictures on her facebook is a scantily clad girl! And, shocker, she doesn’t mind being a more sexualized girl. tGFKaP, not holding obsolete views of gender roles and constructed “moral decency,” does not view sexuality as a bad thing. Nor does this mean that we are an oversexed generation. It’s hard to be oversexed when your favorite article of clothing is a cardigan.(26)

Many older people seem to think that facebook is a networking site as they are accustomed to “networking”: they see it as a site where college kids keep tabs on people so that they can get a job if that friend can help them out. Others have viewed it as a tool for narcissism. It is neither of these; rather, it is a way for Princers to perfect their image and compare it against people with similar images. If Rebecca adds a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone to her favorite music, and I generally love Rebecca’s music, then you can rest assured that I will be off to the record store shortly. This is both an attempt to make my persona closer to what it needs to be for me to be viewed as cool, but also an attempt to find music that I genuinely love.
The Generation Formerly known as Prince is not better than other generations. It is not worse. There is no need for pessimism, and there probably should be a little optimism. My generation can be a little egotistical at times and over confidant, but it is the most openly truthful generation and feels no need for spin. I am very hopeful that my generation will be a very successful generation politically, because we feel no need for spin or claims to objectivity. You only know us as an image, but it’s probably an image you can trust, because its also who we really are.(27)

ENDNOTES
(1)But up is still down!
(2)Those 99¢ socks would go GREAT with this $189 leather jacket! It’s the total look for fall.
(3)It’s why fashionable people try not to shop at Gap that often. Gap’s clothes, indeed, are very good quality, and there can be some very hip outfits. However, the fashonista’s biggest dread – and Gap’s greatest desire – is for someone to ask you where you got that killer jacket? Gap. And those cool jeans? Gap. And the shirt? Gap.
(4)Rause, Richard. “Mexican Migration and the Social Space of Postmodernism” 3.
(5)A look which comes of surprisingly well. However, I don’t think that I shall EVER see a Kid Robot hoodie work with a Free People dress.
(6)URBN, for you ticker-tapers. Gap is GPS.
(7)Fancy name for the people who ring you up and get you your size.
(8)Similar phenomena can be seen throughout the brands which immerged after the supposed “death of the brand” in the late eighties / early nineties. Starbucks refers to customers as guests, implying that the…erm….guests are not obliged to buy anything and will receive the utmost respect from the salesman…err…person….errrm…..host. Naomi Klein’s book NO LOGO is an excellent book for further issues of this branding process.
(9)i.e., clothes from Old Navy or Banana Republic, brands from the “Gap family.”
(10)Just try and tell me you don’t remember those swing dance khaki commercials. If you have read this far, then you do.
(11)Managers and Merchants refer to these store layout plans as “the book.” They speak of it with the same grave and fearful tone that many use when speaking of that other “book” – The Bible.
(12)This data is a little misleading, as these numbers were taken from a Yahoo financial chart, displaying URBN at its sales peak. Most fashion companies saw their sales fall after mid-2006. However, as of May 14, 2007, URBN actually outperformed GPS (Gap), coming in at $24.37 vs. $18.29.
(13)Management stresses layering tees to get that certain individuality. It’s hard to think that this is more than just another player to raise AT.
(14)Gelf magazine says that the “I’m With Stupid” begins the ironic tee shirt mode in tee shirt history. These tee shirts are pretty awesome, however. A favorite from my own collection in this style is a blue shirt that says “I’m a Great Dad Because I’ve Got Great Kids!” The shirt shows that I have a good working knowledge of irony, as clearly I do not have children as a 19 year old at a very expensive school. However, it does not establish a connection in the way that my band tee shirts do.
(15)And if it’s referencing Beirut the the city, than it’s anyone’s guess.
(16)Fredric James describes “historicism” as “random cannibalization of all the styles of the past. (Postmoderism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 18)
(17)And even as I type this, his cultural allusion has already lost all its vivacity after only a few weeks. Such is life in an atemporal world. Perhaps I should predict events instead.
(18)What a thesis! Sounds like it was crafted by the Chair of the Sorbonne’s Continental Philosophy department.
(19)Shouldn’t this really be a symbol?
(20)Wikipedia, Montessori Method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori#Montessori_schools
(21)I usually switched between fire and water. It was hard to beat a Charizard/Gyrados combination.
(22)William Strauss. Generations, 335.
(23)It is hard to place Princers at a certain age range, as many Gen X’ers desperately try to keep up with the current music scene, intellectual activity, etc. Basically, they still think they’re hip. I would find it hard to believe that Princers could be older than thirty. It seems that one trait of Princers is people who are old enough to use cultural memes from the 80’s, but were young enough that they were part of their childhood. Or, if I Love the 80’s was more of a Platonic recollection rather than a nostalgic remembrance.
(24)Lots of 80’s love for The Generation Formerly Known as Prince, no?
(25)Unless you wear the cardigan out of irony, because you are, indeed, a sex-bomb. Again, tGFKaP is impossible to completely characterize, because it works on an individual to individual basis.
(26)ALTERNATE ENDING: David Bowie and Prince would dig this article; you should too.

WORKS REFERENCED (in order of possible importance)
1) Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
2) Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion, 2006.
3) Bauldrilard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. East Lansing: University of Michigan Press, 1994
4) Nussbaum, Emily. “Say Everything.” New York Magazine. February 26, 2007. [ONLINE EDITION]
5) Rause, Richard. “Mexican Migration and the Social Space of Postmodernism”. Taken from Fordham Anthropology Professor Olga Gonzales’s Blackboard documents page.
6) Ward, Marianne. “The iGeneration.” LIFESTYLE. Jan 28, 2997. Pg 34
7) Modest Mouse. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. EMI: 2007
8) The Arcade Fire. Neon Bible. Merge: 2007.
9) Date for band statistics was taken from various label websites and pitchforkmedia.com

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