Ugly is the new green
Here’s a philosophical question, guys: If you could save the planet by wearing a pair of lime-sherbet polyester pants or a gray-and-white box-pattern sport coat that could have been designed by a sugar-amped first grader with access to graph paper and a No. 2 pencil, would you do it?
La Canãda Flintridge-based artist Skeet McAuley, in his online persona as Fugly McUgly, is banking on the fact that you’ll say yes by logging in to his new website, 1Uglyshirt.com, and snapping up the visually offensive used clothing for men (sorry, ladies, no ugly for you) that he’s showcased along with snarky commentary and a “fugly meter” (symbolized by one to 10 orange-shirted figures ranking the repulsiveness of each potential purchase).
The ugly-centric resale site sprung from the artist and former art teacher’s view that understanding beauty and art requires a keen grasp of the ugly. “Look at Guernica,” McAuley said. “It’s a great painting, but it isn’t a beautiful one. It has an effect on you.”
The idea that trafficking in heinous threads could benefit the ecosystem came after a chance tour of a Hong Kong denim factory exposed McAuley to the toll the apparel industry takes on the environment. “There was denim dust coating the walls,” he says. “After that I didn’t want to buy new clothes any more. And where would these ugly clothes end up anyway? The landfill.”
Over the last year, about 10,000 men’s shirts, ties, blazers, tuxedos and sports jerseys have been diverted from death by Dumpster, only 400 of which McAuley has managed to post to date. Each piece is carefully repaired, cleaned and measured and any flaws are noted before the item is photographed and uploaded for sale at a price from $9.99 to $100.
Even if you’re not in the mood for a paisley-patterned leisure suit, McAuley’s accompanying descriptions and made-up style names for each article of clothing (such as Giuseppe, Desmond, Bubba and Finnegan) are worth a visit, doing for fashion missteps what Rock and Roll Confidential (www.rockandrollconfidential.com) does for lame bands and the Gallery of Regrettable Food (www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/) does for dinner.
McAuley won’t divulge the source of his louder-than-loud shirts and gag-inducing hoodies, but he told the Mirror that his entire harvest of ugly is plucked from a 10- to 15-mile radius around L.A., with particular success in Hollywood and West Hollywood.
“Everyone says I need to go to middle America,” McAuley said. “But I don’t have to because it’s the melting pot of fashion right here.”
adam@adamtschorn.com
