Photo from Macy’s Spring 2008 catalog, The Magic of Spring, pp. 46-47 

Last weekend I was waiting for a friend to try on clothes in Macy’s menswear department when, bored out of my mind, I sat down and started paging through the Spring 2008 catalogs they had strewn about the little table in the waiting area. Lo and behold, amidst the ubiquitous photo spreads of prep school types wearing polo shirts, suits and ties, and the oh-so-carefully unbuttoned button-down shirts, pages 46-47 show some homeboys casually loitering on the beach by a graffiti-painted wall, with some tagged palm trees in the background.

The text on this photo spread reads “Go Graphic,” while the appropriately scowling African American men don clothing emblazoned with graffiti-style writing and pictures (the purple t-shirt the center guy is wearing has letters written in the LA-Chicano style of 1950’s-era graffiti, while the model on the left sports jeans appliquéd in sequins to approximate a sailor-type tattoo).

Is the graphic design particularly interesting or unique? Not necessarily. Will Macy*s make bank from appropriating outsider, illegal, and/or fringe art, while most graffiti writers never hope to profit from their work? Probably. Is their marketing department marginalizing young black men in their fashion layouts? Undoubtedly.

But the real question is: Who knew LL Cool J had his own clothing line?