From the mailbox

[magid]

Last night's mail included a catalog from Barneys, featuring extremely overpriced clothing. Then I saw there was also Barneys shoe catalog, containing photos of individual (overpriced) shoes, and many birds. No clue why conures, parakeets, and other small, colorful birds would go with footwear (The last page notes: "All of our avian models were paid the standard model rate for a day's work and returned home happy and well-fed."). And there was an oversized envelope, containing... a catalog from Barneys, this time featuring one model and an illustrated story about Sylvia:

Once upon a time there was a girl called Sylvia. The birds and squirrels were her brothers and sisters. Her best friend was a chicken named Ethel [photo of a black and white chicken with a white ruff and red head]. Sylvia always thought she was the luckiest girl in the whole wide world, until... One day, one fateful day, she found a magic mirror under her granny's bed... Intoxicated and gypnotized by images of fashion and glamour, Sylvia began to dream of escaping to the big city. Like a moth to the flame...Sylvia was drawn inexorably toward her fate. In the big city, Sylvia tried to find herself, but couldn't... Soon she started living for kicks. ...and more kicks. Men liked Sylvia. Sylvia liked men. 'Ere long a dude with a pinkie ring popped the question. On her wedding day a pigeon flew into the church and pooped on the groom's shoulder. Was this a bad omen? At first it was fun playing house. Pampered Sylvia filled her days with pet care and daytime television. Eventually, after months of reckless spending + self-indulgence it finally occurred to Sylvia that she had absolutely no idea how her husband made his money. She found out the hard way... After a slight disagreement with a business associate, he stopped making money ...and breathing. "The broad did it!" yelled the detective. Everyone blamed our heroine. Nobody cared about the truth. Overnight Sylvia became a start... of sorts. It took the jury just 3½ minutes to come up with a verdict, just long enough for Sylvia to powder her nose... for the big house. "This will not be the last the world will hear of Sylvia," vowed Sylvia. To be continued...

Lots of stylish overpriced clothing and accessories for each page of the story. I'm surprised at how much of the clothing is unflattering even to the model (And people will pay thousands of dollars to not look their best?). Three catalogs later, I've gathered Barneys is opening a new store in Boston, but I can't imagine shopping there.

---

This morning on the T employees were handing out orange brochures about the "See something? Say something." campaign. They've had billboards and intercom announcements; I wonder why they felt the need to produce this brochure.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

It seems like they put out the brochure to highlight how well they don't take care of the stations. By 6:50 this morning, there were brochures scattered all over the place at Davis.

Shoes and parrots! Much more likely to make me buy parrrots, but I wanna see. I wonder if I'll get a catalogue myself.

that story is... not right...

[magid.livejournal.com]

At Harvard they were strewn about the Church St. entrance, all around the turnstiles, as if someone had left stacks of them at the entrance. At Park and Arlington, there were employees handing them out, which meant less mess, at least (though I wonder about the waste of time, since presumably there's something else they're usually doing).

The birds were gorgeous, actually. The shoes... not so much. Even the few without 4-5" heels were not particularly nice looking, and especially not for $10^2 - $10^3 range. I could meet you downtown sometime to pass it along, if you'd like.

Whoever was showcasing clothes had a lot of fun with matching the story, so there was some entertainment value (plus an amusing chicken!), though I don't know how many people will buy the clothes, such as the ~ $1200 linen skirt...

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

At Harvard they were strewn about the Church St. entrance, all around the turnstiles, as if someone had left stacks of them at the entrance.

In fact, they'd been left in stacks on the turnstiles. They were still neatly stacked when I went through the Church St. entrance at about 7:10 this morning.

[magid.livejournal.com]

By 8:15 or so, it looked like there once might've been stacks on the turnstiles, but enough people had brushed through with whatever bags and bundles that they had gravitated to the floor all around. You'd think there would be a better system, like containers hung on the walls with brochures for the taking.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Probably the T got a bunch of money for Homeland Security crap, and they can only spend it on Homeland Security crap, so what do they do? Print brochures. Because of course they've got all the intercom system (something that might actually be useful in a real emergency) problems licked, I assume.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the intercom still sounds mostly like Charlie Brown's teacher. Totally helpful in an emergency situation. *snerk*

I never thought of Homeland Security. Which is all about the brochures reminding people to be alert to random packages left about, not fixing entrances and exits (stairways, escalators, and elevators) to make things easier for possible evacuations, of course. Pah.

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

RE: MBTA - Answers to those questions usually revolve around money. My guess is that it was a requirement of some funding.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, probably. It just seems like a waste, considering printing costs and the time of the employees handing them out, when the money could go towards something actually useful.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

My recollection is that Barneys used to be a large lower downtown NY clothing store where one could get OK stuff for low prices.

It has come a long way.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they have a lower-priced sister chain (playing Filene's Basement to their Filene's, as it were). The prices in the catalogs were absurd for off-the-rack prices (dresses (not even ranged up to $5000, shoes got close to $1000, stockings were over $100). I'd think people who can afford that wouldn't be buying at a department store...

[mrn613.livejournal.com]

They do -- it is called Barney's Co-op. Nothing cooperative about it though. The shirts are $200 each instead of $500.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Still far from reasonable. I wouldn't mind the *ability* to afford it, though :-)