Why We Can't Have Nice Things by Minh-Ha T. Pham

Author:Minh-Ha T. Pham
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Duke University Press

Reclaiming the Rainbow Bag by Any Meme Necessary

When the day began in Paris on March 6, 2016, the Balenciaga hashtag primarily referenced the brand’s upcoming and highly anticipated marketing effort, a runway show introducing the Balenciaga Fall 2016 ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week. This was also the debut collection of its new head designer, Demna Gvasalia. By the end of the day, though, the Balenciaga hashtags had taken on new meanings and significance as Thai internet users tacked the Balenciaga hashtags to countless online photos of the Thai rainbow bags.

Thai news outlets credit the first iteration of the meme to actress Pattarida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong, who posted an Instagram photo of herself with a large rainbow bag on March 6 (the same day of the Balenciaga show).22 Her Instagram account is now deactivated but her photo can still be seen online in news articles about the meme. Another early iteration of the meme appeared on the Facebook page of a user going by the name of Wise Man, or นักปราชญ์ (figure 3.1). Wise Man’s Facebook post, also published on March 6, is composed of side-by-side photographs of himself and a Balenciaga model wearing nearly identical tote bags (in size, shape, and textile pattern).23 He jokes in the status update of his Facebook post that (with his newly fashionable bag), he’s “ready to strut to the [upscale] Siam Paragon mall #balenciaga #balenciagabag.”24 The Facebook post received 2,700 reactions and 89 comments and was shared 176 times. Nearly all of the comments riff on Wise Man’s joke about the stylishness of the Thai bag. Some teased that early releases were already available at Pratunam, a popular and cheap outdoor market. (The Balenciaga version would not be released for six more months.) Many joked that the original Thai bag was the superior bag, pointing to its budget-friendly price and its “waterproof” construction (it’s made of plastic rather than leather). Several users like Pond Chatchai Trirongrak and Natakhon Teerawornmongkhon took the copycatting more seriously. Trirongrak stated “Paris is always taking from Thailand and its neighbors” and Teerawornmongkhon openly speculated that the Balenciaga bags might constitute “a copyright issue.”25

For more than a few days after the runway show ended, Thai social media users continued to create and share more iterations of the meme. Together, they reveal a wide range of reactions to the Balenciaga bag from bemusement to annoyance to anger. The vast majority of these social media posts did not include comparison pictures of the Paris show or the luxury bags. The most common iteration consisted of one photo featuring a Thai person or group of people and/or the Thai bags, annotated with at least one Balenciaga hashtag.

FIGURE 3.1. Screenshot of Wise Man’s Facebook post, March 6, 2016.

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