Walk the Walk, Talk the Mock: WearMockers at Work

'It had all of the thrills of shoplifting with none of the guilt. We ended up calling it shopleaving"

-WearMocker 017, Portland OR

When "TOMMY HITLER, FASHION NAZI" began in early July, 1997, the initial plan called for WearMocked co-operatives (or "WearMockers", at the time numbering about three dozen) to place about two hundred shirts in stores everywhere over the following three months. As word of mouth (and e-mail) about the project spread and the pool of willing WearMockers swelled to well over 200, it became apparent there was room to grow. In September, the support of Rtmark was sought, and Rtmark, through its web site, was successful in finding a donor to put up the money for an additional 500 shirts and related project expenses.

"My boyfriend and I worked as a team. He'd ask the salesperson about something on the other side of the department, and I'd have all the time in the world to lay a shirt out and tag it just right."

-WearMocker 171, Atlanta GA

Over the next several months, WearMockers placed the shirts among Tommy Hilfiger shirts of similar style and color on display in department and clothing stores all over. Each shirt so placed had a tag attached with the Tommy Hitler logo on the front and a cryptic mission statement on the back along with WearMocked and Rtmark contact info. The co-operatives were encouraged, whenever possible and by whatever means they chose to employ, to affix the stores' own price tags onto the planted shirts to increase the likelihood of the plants being inadvertently purchased. WearMocker stalwarts achieved this ideal in about 40% of the placements.

"I work at Macy's, so it was no big deal getting one in there. I was amazed how long it took before anyone noticed it (almost two days! And this before the holidays!). Anyway, I only did one. It was just a little too much like work."

-WearMocker 139, La Jolla CA

WearMockers worked with stealth and precision: there were no reports of a co-operative being caught in the act of placing a shirt. However, there were several WearMockers who, after entering a store with a shirt, realized the store didn't carry Tommy Hilfiger clothes. In most of these cases, the co-operative opted to place the shirt with a similar color and style in another designer-line display rather than be mistaken for a shoplifter leaving with a hot shirt and subsequently questioned about the mutated logo thereon.

"I'm just putting a shirt on top of a stack on display and before I can switch a store tag onto it, a man comes up from behind and says "can I grab one of these? and takes it to the service counter. The clerk looks it over as she starts to ring the sale, doesn't find a price tag, rolls her eyes and scans the price from a similar shirt someone left on the counter. She never noticed the "Hitler", he never noticed the "Hitler". I have to wonder how long it took him to realize what the shirt actually said (if he ever has!)"

-WearMocker 061, Pittsburgh, PA

Prior to the public announcement phase of the project, co-operatives reconfigured the information on the tags attached to the shirts to include various reporters' telephone numbers and e-mail addresses as if this were the contact information of the ones responsible for the shirts, so that these journalists would then be contacted by the baffled discoverers of the last group of shirts distributed and hopefully have their interest in the matter piqued.

"Coincidentally, the first time I laid eyes on the "Tommy Hitler" logo, I had just seen an old John Carpenter movie called "THEY LIVE", and I kind of felt like that guy who just put on those glasses that allowed him to see what the billboards were really saying. Like almost a little woozy, actually..."

-WearMocker 049, Richmond VA

WearMockers have in common an antiherdmentalityherdmentality and a love of mischief. Apart from that, they are represented in virtually every walk of life. WearMockers are Teachers and Teamsters, Attorneys and Artists, Clergy and Computeristas. Most of them, it appears, have jobs. Taken as a group, they are very likely in all probability not the best dressed crowd in the world.