Here's an interesting post at Style Amor on a striking yellow unitard Lady Gaga wears in the video for her song "Paparazzi." It's from a recent Jeremy Scott collection, but the image in the print resembles the Mickey Mouse ears-wearing Quetzal, of Mexico City designing duo Marvin y Quetzal. Style Amor suggests that Jeremy Scott bit off a Marvin y Quetzal design, but several people I've consulted disagree, saying that Jeremy Scott first used Mickey Mouse ears prints in 2006. For his part, Marvin Duran tells me people often think the piece in the video is theirs, not by Scott. (I tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with Jeremy about this topic through various friends.)
We'd all like to see more recognition for the independent fashion being generated in Mexico currently. Often, it seems, designers in the U.S. or Europe are, uh, inspired by their counterparts in Mexico, as happened recently with EGR, and not completely forthcoming about their sources. In the "Paparazzi" unitard case, the origin of the print really doesn't matter. It's Lady Gaga's world now. Here, pop is central to fashion, fashion is central to pop, and who did what first becomes untraceable and irrelevant. Yet seeing an echo of dear Quetzal upon Lady Gaga -- the pop-fashion queen of the moment -- in a video about pop overload and death is significant in its own way.
Saturday, September 12 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Quetzalcoatl Rangel Sanchez, one of Mexican fashion's brightest young stars. It's not something his friends get together and talk about much, even when we run into each other -- which happens mostly at loud, crowded parties -- but you can still feel this terrible absence in Mexico City without him. There's still this shock, a sustained disbelief, that he is no longer with us.
This week my thoughts have been with Quetzal's family (whom I had the privilege of meeting in April 2008), with Marvin, and with his closest and most trusted friends. May Quetzal's spirit live on, on Lady Gaga or not, but more importantly in our hearts and dreams -- where I am told he is still regularly making appearances.
* Previously, "Getting into Lady Gaga" and "Fotos y memorias de Quetzal Rangel." See all posts in Fashion here.
** Image above via Style Amor.