Respect Authority

Apparently, Marc Ecko isn’t just a fafillionaire, but also a Star Wars fanatic. I think that fundamentally, Star Wars cannot be appreciated by those of us who were born after the original trilogy’s release, but I understand that at the time those movies must have created a cultural furor like we’ve seen with mega blockbuster movies such as xXx: State of the Union. Nonetheless, it’s easy for me to chuckle, “…nerd,” when Ecko suddenly unveils a Star Wars themed clothing line.

Of course, Ecko got into the now cultural institution well before it turned into the runaway monster brand it has become, caught somewhere between sad self-parody and grotesque marketing behemoth. There was a time, in a galaxy far… far away perhaps, when Star Wars was not quite so ubiquitous, when it was still possible to view it through the eyes of a child, and not just because Natalie Portman hadn’t gotten involved yet, and I think with this collection Ecko is trying to recapture some of that childhood wonder. At least, that’s my best guess, considering some of these t-shirts look like they were pulled from my brother’s closet… when he was fucking six years old.

That one’ll run you a cool 38 bucks, which is a shame since I’m pretty sure I picked it up for $14.99 at an MGM gift shop back in 1994. However, the collection only gets weirder from there.

The “Real Trooper” hoodie, seen above, is definitely going to be the most talked about piece in this line, which is ironic considering that’ll only be the case because it’s laughably outdated. I would hope that we can safely say the reign of the full-zip hoodie is coming to a close, or at the very least, that the days of the silly Halloween costume full-zip hoodie are. If anybody walks into a club with that shit zipped up over their head I sincerely hope Darth Vader himself comes over and fucks them in the ass with a lightsaber.

Overall, the collection is truly unremarkable save for the fact that it’s just so… weird? Out of touch? Unoriginal? Clearly a failure? I don’t know, pick one. The rest of the pieces look like Ed Hardy ate a bunch of Yoda action figures and took a foul Star Wars themed shit. Good thing Marc Ecko is a Star Wars freak, he’s going to be the only one buying any of this.