'Recessionista' Chic: Dress Your Avatar Down-And-Out

I call it by its original early 19th Century term, "Fruit Brute chic," but hot tailored hoboclothes are back in a big way - at least on the Xbox 360.

Microsoft's own infant terrible de couture, Michael Connell, has designed two lines of Avatar clothing inspired by our current shared financial woes - and if you don't mind worsening your own woes by a dollar or two, you can join in the virtual irony:

"I was thinking about making a statement, if you will, that even though this time of global recession, everything isn't bad." Connell said. "And in the 30s, in a time that was really bad, much worse than it is today, it wasn't all bad. There was fashion that was quite interesting. And this fashion wasn't the couture that was happening at the time. It was -- what I'm trying to do -- is more of a work fashion. [I hope] to kind of show that there are good things and we've been there and we'll get out. Clearly these are subliminal messages, but this is what I was inspired by. If you design a collection I think the most important thing is there needs to be heart and soul and direction."

I'm not so sure that I buy the line of thinking that the '30s were a blast, but I guess if you didn't mind the polio or the rickets or the minority oppression or the weevils in the chunk of bread you were lucky to find in the gutter that morning, it was a pretty swell time.

Kotaku's Stephen Totilo points out that cross-dressing is prohibited (much like it might have been back in the swinging '30s, along with alcohol and the fun kinds of sex). Boo! Does my Avatar really need make-believe breasts to wear a make-believe corset I just slapped down a whole dollar for? Harrumph.

Less harrumphy is Connell's Steampunk line, which riffs off the poverty theme without actually asking you to spend money to make your avatar look poor. Connell has a spiel about expression and "world domination through avatar apparel and making huge money" that I'm not buying for one hot minute, but that doesn't mean I won't lay out $3 for a complete wardrobe that reminds me of the Good Old Days, back when we were starving.

Why Depression-Era Clothes Became Xbox 360 Fashions [Kotaku]