Drugs are the fashion

There are few areas the fashion industry will not explore in an effort to shock or seduce the public into spending too much money on clothes.

Benetton has sold sweaters by denoting inter-racial sex, Christ on the cross and a dying AIDS victim. Calvin Klein has flirted with trouble by using sexy under-age teens in provocative poses. And the topless catwalk model has become so over-used as to look almost passe.

Most people who spend their money on more useful items than a US$500 (HK$3,800) shirt do not usually notice or care. But then the President of the United States will say something controversial from the bully pulpit, and fashion once more becomes a political issue.

Unnoticed by The New York Times or Bill Clinton, designers and fashion magazine editors have for about 18 months been exploring a sleazy, unhealthy look to contrast with the expensive chic of the clothes. Otherwise beautiful female models sport dark bags under their eyes and a drawn, pale complexion that comes from too little sleep and not enough daylight; their male counterparts lounge around in Armani suits on the floor of a public bathroom, looking like they are having a designer overdose.

This kind of advertisement or magazine spread has become known as 'heroin chic'. The self-explanatory term comes not just from the fact that the image consultants are trying to turn the seediness of heroin addiction into a fashion statement, but also from the fact that many models and designers on the scene in New York and Los Angeles are avid users of the drug.

Although this imagery has been evident in magazines for some time, it was not until a talented 20-year-old photographer died this year that the media found itself a story. Not only was Davide Sorrenti one of the prime perpetrators of the heroin chic fashion spread, but it was an overdose of the drug that took his young life.