Friday, January 23, 2009

Pictures of Odd Things in Public Places, Part 2: Mall

...at long last. I've been a killer combination of busy and lazy since I returned to school, so forgive the blog pause. Anyhoo...

One afternoon when my family was in South Carolina, we went to the imposing Coastal Grand Mall. Still a giddy new iPhone owner, I snapped some pictures of amusing things in the mall, just as I did at Piggly Wiggly. Again, captions will succeed the pictures.




I'd put five-to-one odds against Gianni Bini and Antonio Melani even existing as real people. One of the funniest things I see in malls is department store in-house brands with faux-elegant Italian names that are clearly meant to remind would-be consumers of bona fide fashion names like Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace.



I'd say it's pretty ironic that a brand called Hobo International is trying to sell fine leather handbags.



My instinct is to stay away from women dressed like the one in the above ad. It's a strong instinct.



Shameless self-humiliation, to show you that I put it all on the line for my loyal blog readers.



Though I am a contented owner of quite a few articles of Polo clothing, the people in their ads never cease to evoke feelings of bewilderment. Not only do the mannequin-like poses and facial expressions (and, no doubt, masks of makeup and airbrushing) disquiet me, their outfits are almost always ridiculous. I can't say I see many young men wearing bow ties under zip-up sweaters, but perhaps I don't run with the right crowd.

In conclusion, where's Don Draper when you need him?

Cheers.