“Excuse me, are those Bugle Boy jeans that you’re wearing?”

In the late 80s, the Bugle Boy clothing brand released a couple of comical commercials which featured a man clad in Bugle Boy jeans who gets asked by a woman if those are Bugle Boy jeans he’s wearing…and it turns out that that’s all she wants to know from him.

One of the commercials dates from 1989 and features a man in a condominium situated amidst the backdrop of the Miami skyline. He’s sitting in a chair, and he receives a phone call, at which point a woman’s voice on the other end of the line asks if he’s wearing Bugle Boy jeans. When he says yes, she thanks him and hangs up.

Another commercial takes place on a nearly empty desert road. It features the same guy from the previous commercial, standing on the side of the road, seemingly waiting for someone to stop and give him a ride. Suddenly, a black Ferrari speeds right past him, only to quickly stop and go back in reverse to where the man is standing. The driver of the Ferrari turns out to be a woman, who happens to ask him, “Excuse me, are those Bugle Boy jeans that you’re wearing?” He says yes, she thanks him, and then drives off.

By the way, the woman in this commercial is a British former model named Annabel Schofield, who had appeared in Versace ads in 1985.

 

 

There’s some debate as to the year in which this latter commercial aired on tv. The person who posted the video of this commercial on Youtube listed the year as 1988. However, someone left a comment on the video‘s page saying that they believe the commercial is from the 1990-1991 period. It’s likely that the commercial was still being aired in 1991. Though I know for certain that it aired in 1990 because I traveled to New York that year and I went shopping for clothes there with a cousin of mine. One of the items I bought was a pair of Bugle Boy jeans, and later that day, my cousin and I were joking about the Bugle Boy commercial, mentioning that “the girl takes off after asking the guy if he’s wearing Bugle Boy jeans.”

One interesting thing about this latter commercial is that it went on to be quite well-known by the public -- it became a meme of the popular culture of the late 80s/early 90s -- and was even parodied various different times, including in a music video by the band Genesis.

Grace Jones - “I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)”

In contemporary times, fashion and music have seemed to go hand in hand rather often. Fashion has been influenced by musical styles, and musicians have drawn inspiration from fashion trends. At times, there have even been individuals who found success in both the fashion industry and the music industry, thereby fusing together the worlds of fashion and music. That’s the case with the iconic Grace Jones.

Grace was originally a model. She modeled throughout the 1970s, as well as part of the 80s, working mainly in Paris with top designers such as Azzedine Alaia (to whom she was a muse). She was also a muse to Andy Warhol.

In the late 70s, she landed a record deal with Island Records, and she proceeded to record three albums between 1977 and 1979. In the early 80s, however, Grace entered into a collaboration with stylist Jean-Paul Goude which led to a transformation in her look to a more androgynous style. Coinciding with the burgeoning New Wave style of music, Grace’s own music morphed as well. She released two albums in the early 80s, one of them being 1981’s Nightclubbing.

The album contains reworked versions of previously-recorded songs, the most notable of which is “I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango).” The song went on to become one of Grace’s biggest hits. Also, the song was featured prominently in the 1988 film Frantic directed by Roman Polanski.

Incidentally, the video to the song was directed Jean-Paul Goude, with whom Grace was romantically involved for a time.

There is also an alternate video to the song.

Gaultier & Greenaway: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Continuing with the theme of Jean-Paul Gaultier...

In addition to Gaultier's fashion design career and his brief foray into music, he has also designed costumes for a number of movies. One of those movies is 1989's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.

Directed by avant-garde director Peter Greenaway, the movie tells the story of a brutal crime boss who happens to own a restaurant at which he dines every night along with his motley band of henchmen and his lonely, abused wife. The wife, played by the prodigiously talented Helen Mirren, eventually finds herself drawn into a risky love affair with bookish man who also dines at the restaurant on a nightly basis. As the nights go by, the two lovers carry out their affair in the various nooks and crannies of the restaurant, all under the nose of the woman's unsuspecting husband. Inevitably though, the actions of the lovers lead to devastating consequences.

Overall, the movie is graphic and even disturbing, as it contains a couple of scenes that are gruesome. In spite of that though, the movie features striking cinematography and eye-catching set design, and an intriguing use of specific colors in the different sections of the restaurant.

Some of the costumes include one of Gaultier’s unmistakable trademarks:
a corset. Here are some examples of his work for the film.

Originally, the movie did not get approved for an R rating. According to Wikipedia:

"Due to the content, the MPAA gave Miramax a choice of either an X rating or go unrated (adults only) for theatrical release. Unrated was chosen in light of the X rating being more associated with pornographic films."

Today, the movie has a rating of NC-17.

And finally, from what I've read elsewhere, certain elements of the movie represent an allegory for Britain during the Thatcher years. With such an unconventional movie, who’d have thought? :)

Jean-Paul Gaultier - "How To Do That"

A few days ago, Madonna launched her latest world tour (the "MDNA Tour"), in Tel Aviv, Israel. The tour's costumes were designed by a handful of fashion designers, including the legendary French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. Gaultier is probably best known for having designed the costumes for Madonna's infamous 1990 world tour, the "Blond Ambition Tour." This time around, he designed a conical bra corset for Madonna similar to the ones she wore in the Blond Ambition Tour. Her current Gaultier-designed corset features cutouts that make it resemble a cage, and it's made of patent leather on the outside and metallic leather on the inside to give it a 3D effect.

As a fashion designer, Gaultier is sometimes referred to as the "enfant terrible" of the fashion world, mainly due to his provocative and controversial avant-garde designs. One thing many people may not know about Gaultier is that he recorded a dance music single in 1988 titled "How To Do That".

The whimsical video to the song features 80s models Claudia Huidobro, Naomi Campbell, Cameron Alborzian, and John Francis among others, all wearing Gaultier fashions.