The brand AMBUSH, is a contemporary japanese jewelry label founded by the designers VERBAL and YOON, in 2008. The label has partnered with a variety of influential street brands and designers including A Bathing Ape, NIGO, Maison Kitsune, sacai and UNDERCOVER. Most notably, Yoon Ambush was appointed as Kim Jones’s jewelry chief at Dior Homme and accessorized the incredible Dior Fall 2019 collection.
One of the signature accessories from the brands Fall/Winter 2019 collection is a $702 USD lighter case cord necklace.
The necklace features a gold and silver-toned lighter case pendant which is attached to a mismatched sterling silver beaded cord. It’s an elevated take on the label’s signature lighter case design, adding gold-toned balls and beads into the silver chain, which is supported by a slightly visible black cord underneath.
While the design is impeccable, it seems like AMBUSH might be giving people the wrong ideas. In some sense, the idea that you should buy a case for a lighter for a whopping $702 is not only slightly absurd but also seems to be abusing people’s need for a lighter in order to sell their products. Surely, a lighter can be practical to have around sometimes, but conceptualizing products around that can send the wrong message.
In some ways, addictions seem to be something that brands, consciously or unconsciously, often tend to do abuse to sell their products. This product could be subliminally is implying that it’s somehow cool to need a lighter like that around your neck all the time- thereby glamorizing everything that comes with needing a lighter, like smoking for example.
In 2017 Vetements, the brand you probably know for their DHL-tshirt and jeans with a butt-zipper, got slammed for coming out with a the silver snuff necklace – basically a slim pendant with a tiny spoon hidden within.Thereally outdid themselves in edginess there. The silver snuff necklace was posted alongside a grinder and a lighter here:
Some commenters did not react very well saying that ‘Vetements is known for innovation but the perpetuation of substance use while we are in an epidemic time is pushing the envelope a tad bit far (my opinion)’ and ‘Lol sick… marketing drug culture to consumption addicts’. One user has interesting input, writing “Well… I really like the brand Vetement and your creativity… but drug abuse is not a funny thing’ adding ‘I have worked in a psychiatric clinic during my studies of medicine; it was a closed psychiatry for drug and alcohol addicts on detox. When you have seen people go cold turkey, greasing their excrements on a wall, you will never glamorize drugs anymore’. Yikes, but fair point.
We’re not telling you how to spend your money or not to buy a $702 US dollar lighter case, if that’s what floats your boat you should do as you please (although we strongly advise you to check your bank balance thoroughly before). Drugs shouldn’t have a place in fashion and we hope that you act as aware consumers question the intentions of the brands you give your well-earned money to.
