Fashion Mimics Art: An Urban Insight

Anyone who has ever met me once knows that I LOVE clothes. I'm not picky-I'll shop anywhere, but I frequent Urban Outfitters quite a bit. As the Memphis readers might know, we don't have one here (yet), so I peruse their website in search of reasonably priced treasure. As an Art History graduate and museum employee, I also LOVE art and all things creative. So when I stumbled upon tee shirts with Barbara Kruger, Egon Schiele (my personal favorite artist) and Keith Haring imagery, I not only swooned, but was, as an art person, proud.                        

The debate over fashion mimicking art and vice versa is a moot one, in my opinion-they clearly inspire eachother. But in this case, there is an obvious I put this image on a white tee because everyone loves Keith Haring thing going on here. I can't bring myself to purchase these kinds of shirts as proud as I am, simply because I feel like maybe art is becoming mainstream. Why would that bother me?

Maybe I'm taking this too personally. Art is something every person experiences and enjoys, and i love the fact that others appreciate what i hold near and dear to my heart. Which is probably why I'm feeling a bit too territorial. So now when I see someone sporting an Egon Schiele tee, I feel like I have the inside scoop. In these now regular occurences I'll smile and think, "man, that Art History degree was worth it".