Horror

We have in recent years seen a return of Victorian horror vacui. Just as the Victorians couldn't leave a stone unturned in their architecture, a surface or margin free from arabesques, frisks of foliage, geometric Greek friezes, acanthus acroteria, Gothic finials and crockets; a fabric unladen with dense patterns, florid swirls, pinstripes, herringbones and dripping with frills, ribbons, borders and ribbons; wallpaper... I could go on, but you get the idea.

Now though, instead of artistic or decorative ornament, we have brands, logos, tagging and graffiti. 

The difference is, the Victorian decoration works like small trills of music or contrapuntal variation on the main theme, while what we have now is like truck reversing warnings or someone shouting their name through a megaphone.

I noticed brands appearing on the back of coats recently, usually on the right shoulder, and I was trying to remember what that reminded me of. Although the ? hovered just out of reach, I knew it had worrying or ominous associations. 

The ? was in pictures of Jewish ghettos in Nazi Europe, with people with a Star of David in just the same place on the backs of their coats. 

The Nazis liked to brand people as well as clothing, with tattoos - their own, the SS, with their blood group, and concentration camp inmates with a number. Then there's the ever-growing popularity of skulls as decorative devices. Say 'totenkopf' instead of skull and that's another fashion trend channelling the Nazis. 

I suppose it's subconscious rather than deliberate, and to do with the never-ending fascination with the Nazis and their evil glamour. We seem to be exposed to more about them and the Second World War as time goes on, rather than less.

It's as I quoted Kurt Vonnegut in  http://robocono.blogspot.com/2015/10/like-im-sure-rest-of-you-im-baffled-by.html 

"Our war will live forever in showbiz as other wars would not, because of the uniforms of the Nazis" (Timequake, Jonathan Cape, London 1997, p.23).