A – Any clothing by Ed Hardy
Ed Hardy started out as a tattoo artist from Southern California, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Art in printmaking and then, through his association with renowned tattoo artist Sailor Jerry Collins (yes the creator of Sailor Jerry’s Rum), went to study tattooing in Japan with classical Japanese tattoo master Horihide. This would explain the oriental influences present in his tattoo designs as was also present in Sailor Jerry’s tattoos (due to his time spent in the Navy near Southeast Asia and his life as a drifter sailing the Pacific Ocean), both admiring the artistic style of Asian designs. Since then Ed Hardy’s tattoo designs have been adapted to clothing and with, in my opinion, disastrous results. They are just so gaudy and ugly. Whilst I’m not entirely a fan of tattoos myself, despite occasionally considering getting one, I imagine that the designs lend themselves to tattoos much better than they do clothes. In the majority of these patterns I can’t even figure out what it represents or what has been drawn as they’re so ornate and complex. Add to this the mismatching of colours on top of which Swarovski crystals or sequins are sometimes incorporated and it’s enough to give anyone a headache. Therefore imagine my dismay to find out how immensely popular these designs are. That’s not to say I’m going to start a campaign to bring down Ed Hardy and his designs but I cannot see the appeal of these designs, for starters what else would you wear them with besides jeans or chinos? I couldn’t see any jacket or jumpers really matching these t-shirts or any other items of Ed Hardy apparel that are available. In general from what I’ve seen it tends to be a lot of keen gym users and by that I mean ridiculously over the top muscle bound guys who predominantly wear these t-shirts. I’m not making any comment on this because I’m not sure what comment there is to make. I know there are plenty of average sized guys who wear these and also many women but more often than not it’s the muscular guys who I see sporting them. I’ve also read online when searching for information regarding the Ed Hardy brand/apparel that they are very expensive items and poorly made. Well I wouldn’t have even made it as far as to inquire the price of the item seeing as its garish design would have stopped from ever considering its purchase.
Exceptions where this faux pas is acceptable
Never as it seems these designs are reviled so much that you cannot even wear them ironically. Now that’s an achievement.