Revolutionary for Sale

In the constantly changing world of fashion one item that has remained surprisingly constant and 'in style' over the past few decades has been clothing plastered with the portrait of socialist revolutionary Che Guevara with everyone from infants to Prince Henry of Wales wearing such t-shirts. This is possibly one of the oddest and most self contradictory phenomena's of the twenty first century.

The Argentine born Che joined with Fidel Castro to bring about a socialist revolution in Cuba through a campaign of guerilla warfare against the US backed dictator Batista, after the success of this revolution he took up the prominent position of Minister for Industry in the new regime. After his resignation from this post he spent the remainder of his life attempting to bring about revolutions across Africa and South America till he was captured and executed by US trained operatives in Bolivia.

In line with the Marxist ideology Che followed he probably saw the entire fashion industry as not only an example of capitalisms allocation of resources to a wealthier minority at the cost of the poorer masses but as a from of ideological control used by an elite few to diverge the attention of the masses from the true cause of their problems (i.e. capitalism) onto more frivolous matters, thus preventing them from taking action to change the status quo that does not favor them. (And perhaps he does have a point there,I have seen so few stylish protestors).Here lies the contradiction that surely has Che turning in his grave; his image is part of the system he despised and spent his life fighting.

The photograph of Che looking out onto the distance was captured by Communist photographer Alberto Korda who declined royalty payments of the image believing that its reproduction would spread Che's ideals. It was then printed on the cover of Ches 'Bolivian Diaries' which was published in 1967 after his death and posters of it circulated amongst leftist political parties across Europe and S.America soon after. It then underwent a gradual commercialization leading to it finally making its way to the fashion industry.

So why did the fashion industry choose to adopt his image? Were they exercising their sense of humor by making profit of the image of a man vehemently opposed to private profit? Possible but the more likely answer lies in the nature of consumerist society. It is an often occurring phenomenon that a set of anti-establishment ideas emerge due to the actions of certain groups and individuals in society and initially pose a threat to the existing status quo but as they begin to embody themselves in marketable goods from which a profit can be made (CDs, films or in this case clothing) they are widely commercialized and cease to present many of their initial anti establishment ideals to people; thus ceasing to be a threat to the status quo while yet retaining an anti establishment image. This can also be illustrated by the career of the rap music industry in the US. This initially emerged in the '80s carrying a heavy lyrical content that highlighted the disadvantages and problems faced by African Americans in the US and calling for serious change. However over time this was commercialized by profit seeking record companies who invested in rappers with less 'controversial' lyrics so they may appeal to a wider (and hence whiter) audience while at the same time retaining their anti establishment image that the audience wanted to be associated with. This has reached the point today that rappers nowadays promote everything from luxury cars to sneakers.

This holds true for Che clothing, vast majority of people sporting his image know very little about his ideas and beliefs but simply want to be associated with his image as a 'rebel'. In fact recently when I asked an acquaintance wearing this t-shirt what he knew about the man plastered on his chest he said he thought it was the singer of modern rock band R.A.T.M. The problem is that too many people, especially the youth, are more concerned with the image of themselves they are portraying to others than what stands behind that image. The adoption of an image by a person brings about only a superficial change in themselves while the studying and acceptance of the ideas and beliefs behind it will truly alter the way a person thinks about and interprets the world around him. Few of them must know that the 'rebel' on their chests would have ceased the production of the designer labels they hold so dear to their hearts, nationalized daddy's business and, judging by his words 'the end justifies the means', probably ordered their executions if they made serious attempts to resist these changes...But on the other hand it is a very stylish looking t-shirt.