Macy’s Has A Good Idea! Forreal.

Mary H.K. Choi
The Awl
Published in
2 min readJan 18, 2010
GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!

Let me preface this by saying I don’t have any emotional attachments to Macy’s stores. I have never seen the parade and neither of my parents have ever taken me there for magical memory making, et cetera. All I know is that the department store is in a neighborhood of Manhattan that feels like punishment and their clothes aren’t worth the tourist viruses you have to wade through to get at them because Macy’s is also near that one SUPERWalMart Victoria’s Secret where there are many people who like to wear things from the Pink collection. In real life. Without dying laughing. You’ll identify them by their see-through bra straps.

Anyway, now Macy’s is doing something that I think is just a damn good idea. They’re holding a casting call for new designers. They’re letting n00bs swan into their doors, full-on PRETENDING that they didn’t think Macy’s was “played” and their swishy bottlejob Leigh Lezark/Olivier Theyskens hairdos TOTALLY love INC International Concepts and Lucky jeans and want to be down with them really bad.

I think it’s clever of Macy’s to spin this exactly this way (instead of OHGAWD FUGGOMAYDAY!) and if their buyers are on-point about the new vanguard I may get properly excited.

Sure, this open-source fashion jam has been done before. TopShop stays fishing for new ideas in a similar manner in highly cunning and successful (and FINE OK, sometimes weirdsies) ways but there is a Red Lobstery stodginess about Macy’s that I truly hope this effort will help mitigate.

I also hope really talented fashiony awesomes are as nimble of the mind as they are in outsourced sewing labor because the application is maybe totally scary.

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Mary H.K. Choi
The Awl

you had meat hello. take part live. allure. wired. gq. instyle. billboard. producer. writer. meow.