Mysteries of the universe: Ed Hardy, Abercrombie & Fitch

I don't know if it is a fever in your country too, but here in Sweden Ed Hardy T-shirts are selling like bananas. I wish I could know why. Yes, they are colorful and have some different prints too, but to pay 1000 Swedish crowns (many dollars) for a single T-shirt?! If it was somewhere else I could even think some I see are fake, but here in Sweden there is no falsification, so I believe every person I see wearing an Ed Hardy spent a considerable amount of cash on it.

Same thing, although not as common here in Sweden, is A&F. I see this f******  brand on people in every part of the world I go. Had never even been to one of their stores before. Then I recently went to London and thought I should finally have my debut. 

I walked into the store without really knowing if that was the store. The map said it was but there was no name, nothing. I actually thought it was a party because I saw some people outside talking and I could hear music coming from the inside. I almost left thinking it was not the place, but decided to check anyway. I happened to be right, it was a disco as well as Abercrombie & Fitch. Hundreds of people walking around, dozens of clerks minimally dressed (I even think I saw guys without shirts) and darkness. I am not kidding, it was almost a poetic portrait of hell: very loud radio music, people welcoming me in a smiley flirty way and soft red lights. I was waiting for the orgy amongst people in there to start and some souls to boil in a bubbly cauldron .

From what I could see from the poor lights, the clothes seemed very uninteresting. Casual stuff. Then I tried to check the price on one piece and after squinting my eyes for a while I finally saw it. It was enough to make me get out of there in a second.

So, judging by the cases above, it must be a status thing. People start buying because everybody else has one, so they can be as "cool". It's a great thing if it makes one happy. Even happier are the owners of these trademarks. I will remain unaffected by the power of marketing (at least for that matter) and happy too.