Object: The Homeless Survival Coat
Designer: Jan Borchies
URL: http://www.janborchies.com/
Category: Fashion
Price: $1000
Lust Factor: Cold
Description: The Survivor Coat, as you may be able to see from the toung-and-cheek design, gives all the amenities the homeless needs in convenient and easy to find pouches. As well, the jacket pronounces the wearer’s social condition through it’s homeless patch which smacks of nazi-era stars of David. Me no likey.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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November 20th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
This product is what some people today call “critical design”, and is my way to deal with the fact that homelessness is growing and nobody talks about why? Whith the coat I wanted to start some discussions about homelessness and what causes it. If you don´t know about critical design please try to find out, it´s a new way of putting focus on important issues such as for example homelessness.
Best regards
/Jan Borchhies
November 21st, 2006 at 1:49 am
I agree with your sentiment entirely. Your design is probably one of three designs that I consider profoundly important on the site. Thanks so much for pointing “critical design” out to me, as well. Could you point me towards some other resources to explore?
By the way, when I mentioned the homeless patch on the front, left of the jacket, I found this to be powerful and disturbing because of its classification of someone in a particular economic strata. My belief is that everyone is entitled to live their life as best they can, and the jacket points to a future where a certain group could be pulled out of society unjustly. I guess, in a way, this is always going on. On the other hand, the jacket’s bold color could really bring light to the enormity of this social situation. For instance, if all homeless people in San Francisco wore this jacket, there would be a sea of blue. This strong visual reminder might somehow trigger a more resolute response to this problem.
Really, the jacket and some of your other projects are worth a volume of critical analysis. I am, unfortunately, not skilled enough to give proper analysis to many of the objects that deserve this.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Ok Brandon. Everything on the coat is made to “work aganinst” the forces that want to hide this problem, so even the colours, that symbolise the colours of my country. Critical design is in fact something that is growing right now. There has been some designers working with critical design during the last 10 years but in some sence it´s still beeing a pretty small community. Maybe you should check out some colleagues of mine at http://www.muungano.com to find out more about it. There is also some brittish people named Dunne & Raby, try to google them and you may find something. I would like to exhibit the coat over seas so let me know if you know some place that could be interested.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Thanks for the website, Jan. What gallery would be good to exhibit at is a good question. I’m in San Francisco, and I know a couple of gallery owners, but they aren’t the perfect places to exhibit, unfortunately. I’ve got a couple places in mind, though. Let me do some digging. There is one New york gallery in particular that would be excelent. I need to get back to you.
December 12th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Ok, great Brandon. We´ll keep in touch. Feel free to contact me thrue my email jan@janborchies.com
Best regards,
/Jan
December 13th, 2006 at 1:57 am
Jan,
I would think one of the best places to show is at Moss in Soho, Manhattan. They are one of the few gallery spaces that bring art and design together in a way similar to critical design (see their buildings of disaster paperweight series, for instance). Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone there. I don’t know what the best way to approach them is. Go to http://www.mossonline.com to see more.
December 16th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Ok Brandon, I will try to contact them. Thank´s a lot for the advice.
Best regards
/Jan