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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
So if ugly is a birthright, then fugly is a choice -- one that more and more people seem to be making.
"We're in the midst of a fugly moment in fashion," Doonan told me in a phone conversation from Palm Beach, Fla. (which he rated only occasionally fugly). "I attribute it to Uggs."
In fact, Uggs -- the Australian trend that, like Kylie Minogue, won't die -- are so closely associated with fug that they're almost like its visual shorthand.
Maybe it's because both seem Muppet-like, says Sarah Federman, 28, an advertising exec in New York and Toronto and a fugliophile. "Fugly sounds like a great cartoon character," she theorizes. "'Fugly and His Friends.' 'Fugly Goes to Camp.'"
Exactly, says Doonan. "Fugly is sort of an infantile, cartoony adjective, and it applies very nicely to things that themselves are very infantile and cartoony -- e.g., Uggs."
But fugly goes beyond footwear; it's a whole aesthetic.
"Good fugliness isn't accidental; it's very choreographed, like Murakami bags," explains Doonan. "So much of contemporary fashion is ugly and funky, in a deliberate way: huge platform shoes and fake tans and cellphones hanging around your neck. It's part cartoon and part porno and comes from a Japanese sensibility."
Paris Hilton's X-rated manga look is one example of fuglification, but there are many more.
"Men who have curly hair but have mullets," says Sveta Srinivasan, 26, a brand strategist from Brooklyn, N.Y. "Anyone who wears crushed velvet. Melissa Rivers."
When it comes to celebrities, though, fugliness is often in the eye of the beholder. Morgan and Cocks, who parlayed their cattiness into a gig critiquing Oscar outfits for MSNBC, often focus their gaze on stars who have been anointed fashionistas by the Vogue crowd. (In fact, Cocks once fugged Anna Wintour herself.)
"There are these celebrities who are being promoted to the public as being worthy of admiration and imitation when really they look totally insane," says Morgan. "Maggie Gyllenhaal dresses like a lunatic half the time." Chloë Sevigny may be beautiful, but according to Morgan, she's no icon: "All she's doing is wearing a large men's Hanes Beefy Tee." Kirsten Dunst is a favorite target, too, for her penchant for wearing socks with sandals.
But -- and here's where I get nervous -- I've worn socks with sandals. Often. As has probably half of New York's glam downtown crowd. And the New Yorkers I talked to didn't find anything offensive in Sevigny or Gyllenhaal's offbeat style, so contrary to the L.A. uniform of sexy jeans, flirty top and flashy sandals. Is there maybe an East Coast-West Coast style divide at work here? (Go Fug Yourself is L.A.-based.) Are the Fug Girls, as they're known, prejudiced against the fashion forward?
"Whenever it's slightly idiosyncratic, I think they pick on them," says Emily Kofsky, 28, a Manhattan marketing manager and reader of Go Fug. "That's what the girls dress like on the Lower East Side."
"We do sometimes get e-mails from people who say we don't appreciate people who take fashion risks," admits Morgan, who considers Gwyneth Paltrow a fashion role model (despite her bad posture). "I understand the point they're making and I actually do appreciate more avant-garde stuff, but I think there's a place for it." (Hint: It's not the red carpet.)
