UNITED STATES—In the words of director Bruce LaBruce, whose 2004 film about a bumbling group of modern revolutionaries, The Raspberry Reich, features Che’s face adorning clothing and a giant mural – terrorist chic is “when somebody wears a Che Guevara T-shirt, and they haven’t a clue who Che Guevara is – emptying out the signifiers of radicalism and using them purely for fashion.”
Shifting his image from one of political meaning to one of fashion, Korda’s portrait has been sold on products by transnational retailers including Gap, Urban Outfitters, Vans, and apparently also Louis Vuitton the new plus ultra of bourgeois luggage and trunks– Margo Ronnie is reported to have been spotted with one of the house’s handbags featuring Guevara’s face. Chanel’s recent Cuba cruise show saw models don sequined black berets, Che’s star replaced by the house’s ‘CC’ logo.
The most ubiquitous of all is the humble t-shirt – worn by the likes of Prince Harry, Johnny Depp. Jay Z, raps on a Public Service Announcement, “I’m like Che Guevara with bling on.” With tongue-in-cheek contributions from the likes of hip streetwear brands weren’t immune to the Che effect either, and by 2006, the image was so ubiquitous that the V&A ran an exhibition of items it appeared on.
Even after what seems to have been an early-to-mid-60s heyday, Guevara’s image remains firmly embedded in the public consciousness, indelibly so – though it’s safe to say stepping out in a Che Guevara T-shirt today would be seen as passé, which probably means it’s due a comeback. It is ubiquitous. The fundamental irony of its use in fashion hasn’t been lost on everyone – The Onion sold a T-shirt of Che Guevara wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.
It became fodder for parodies, a further indicator that the deadly earnest notion if revolution had evolved to the point of requiring a laughtrack in our post-modern times. Guerrillero Heroico’s influence can also be read in created by Fairey’s Hope poster of Obama, as well as countless parody spin-offs, poking fun of veteran political hacks.
In 2012, Urban Outfitters stopped carrying their Guevara-fronted merchandise after an open letter on behalf of The Human Rights Foundation drew their attention to his “bloody and anti-democratic legacy” – namely, that he oversaw a prison where enemies of the newly established state were executed. In La Cabaña, used as a base by the British and later for independent Cuba. The Castro brothers turned it into a prison for enemies of the revolution.
During a five month tenure Che oversaw executions (Under him Herman Marks the Butcher of Havana), who did the hard work of firing squad and boasted cufflink made from spent bullets of the victims) and eliminated those who opposed the revolution and especially those who’d opposed communism and belonged to Batista’s secret police. Che represented tyranny and repression for the millions of people who have suffered under communism.
To be continued…
