Shopping Bag Spree

When a really good shopping bag shows up, it's hard not to ask for another.  And another.  And another.  That's what happened when we saw the shopping bags that Uniqlo is currently offering, in an ingenious marketing ploy to highlight their current collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art.  They have tee shirts and scarves (they call them stoles) and sweat shirts and bandannas and canvas bags, all emblazoned with art from iconic 20th century artists.  It's Uniqlo, so we were able to get a number of things -

Above, Jean is wearing a Keith Haring tee shirt, with this pattern.

Valerie is wearing an Andy Warhol tee shirt, with this pattern (to match her Icon shoes).

And we both got Basquiat stoles (which we'll wear when it's a bit cooler), with this hilarious pattern.

Finally, if you look carefully, you might see that Valerie is carrying a canvas bag with Andy Warhol bananas.  That's how we were able to get all the cool shopping bags, because even though the whole kit and kaboodle would have fit in one bag, Valerie cajoled the cashiers into bagging each item separately.  After the shopping bags hit critical mass, we stood outside Uniqlo's flagship store on Fifth Avenue, built an artsy little shopping bag wall, and photographed ourselves.  Then, to have a little fun, we honored the artists whose work is on the bags (actually, honored may be too strong a word) by customizing our photographs.

People our age might know that in his early days of drawing graffiti in public, Jean-Michel Basquiat went by the name SAMO (a shortening of same old *hit).  And of course jagged crowns were among his recurring themes.

Keith Haring is perhaps best known for his radiant baby, so to differentiate ourselves, we have radiant shopping bags.

And we turned up the volume (so to speak) on the color and contrast buttons as a nod to Andy.  (Just think what we could have done if we'd gotten wigs in time for this post!)