I prefered when Sid Vicious, Siouxsie, Luna Sea members had swastika armbands.
Because, together with the rest of the outrageous look, you couldn’t feel anything political,
it was just a visual shock.

The Adolf Tour tee, on the other hand is bad taste…

Oh, I mentioned Lucifer Rising as for NBHD inspiration (60’s motorcycle gangs, drugs, swastikas, churches etc.). My mistake, it’s actually “Scorpio Rising”. Great great film.

And they are still sold – by our british mates:
http://www.8ball.co.uk/OffensiveT-shirts/HitlerEuropeanTour1939-45.html

Now if you say that the guys at NBHD do worship Hitler, that’s another thing. We should ask!

For the nazi part, I give you this example, I’m a leftie, but as a designer, I love and worship the graphic design that was made during the WWII, as well as the uniforms, colorways etc. That doesn’t make me a nazi. I can’t help but all their designs were perfect.

Same for Charles Krafft’s disasterware. It’s poetic and disgusting at the same time. The first time I saw the guns (the AK-47), I was amazed, the contrast between the gun and the flourish decoration was something I never saw before. The teapot was so much fun too. Quite shocking, but at the same time… it’s a teapot.

I remember a series of t-shirts by an american brand, can’t remember if it’s Supreme, Fuct or Freshjive, they were all-over prints with photos of different wars I recall, some were photos of columbian drug trade murders. It’s funny how nobody said anything about it. It could have been any other dictator or mass-murderer, no one would have said anything about it.

Again, you should try and watch Lucifer Rising. I totally see the connection here, where NBHD got inspiration for the deco of their store: 60’s motorcycle gangs, Kenneth Anger, Charles Manson…

Let’s also talk about their sound system in the shop, it’s really original, who checked it?

Neighborhood have indeed produced items with swastikas on them and have referenced many of the motifs of the Third Reich. Next time you take your tongue out of Shin’s anti-semitic rectum you can ask him to show you them.

The bottom line is that Neighborhood have a sculpture / piece of artwork of someone inside their store who was responsible for the murder of 6 million people and that is not acceptable. No artistic argument can justify this.

I am not talking about the Disasterware by Charles Krafft found in the Harajuku store that I visit all the time. I am talking about actual products that are for sale in the store. Does Neighborhood produce garments with swastikas + adolf hitler faces and stuff? My answer is: probably not. I’ve never seen any.

Let’s not mix up the store decoration with the actual products sold in the store.

Not only you’re so late about this, (disasterware are in the shop since 2007!), but I find it quite annoying to condemn Disasterware which are great pieces of art, while there are other great provocating objects in the store, such as the pentagram made of police barriers. Is satanism ok ? Is burning virgins or cops and occult rituals ok?

Don’t get me wrong, I am totally anti-fascist, but the decoration of this shop has no political stance, it’s a big mashup of 60’s motorcycles, the occult, and WWII imagery. Actually, I found it totally inspired by Lucifer Rising (you probably don’t know this movie, they don’t wear sneakers in it…).

It’s not like NBHD are pro-something or anti-something, it’s just the deco of a store, they are not selling guns or human foetuses…

If you have to fight something it’s probably the racist lyrics in most hip-hop albums you probably listen to while at Nike or Bape…

Neighborhood know exactly what they are doing when they incorporate the swastika into their clothing and, whilst I am all for fashion pushing boundaries and all that jazz, this is taking it too far.

It is insensitive, disrespectful and quite frankly a pathetic attempt at generating column inches. It shows a total lack of creativity or innovation and I sincerely hope that anyone with a brain reading this takes the same approach as myself and, from this point onwards, does not support a brand that thinks using swastikas is cool or necessary.

What irks me the most though when I read the comments relating to this post is that ,notwithstanding how offensive such an action by Neighborhood is, there still seem to be loads of people out there so obsequiously committed in their quest to ass-lick Shin and his buddies that they won’t acknowledge how disgusting it is.

I really would be fascinated to know how Mark Parker and the Board and Shareholders of Nike and similar individuals at Vans would react if they were made aware that the companies they are working with openly embrace and advocate the use of swastikas in their design. I can assure you it would not be looked upon favorably.

Fashion is all about making statements but Neighborhood have adopted this strategy in the manner of a bunch of illiterates and I just hope that people think exactly like Phil-G had the intelligence to do before they next consider buying anything made by this derivative bunch of morons who couldn’t design an original logo if it slapped them in the face.

I assume that there are probably two reasons why those kinds of products are sold.

The first one is that almost Japanese are not educated about how tragic those history were, except for the topic of atomic bombs, even if they are educated about the fact of the history in high school. (maybe not only Japanese, but i don’t want to compare. it’s meaningless now.)
So, some of Japanese are very insensitive about how people feel those tragedies, especially about ones of foreign country, i think.
They are usually educated just about a lot of knowledges, such as how many people were died at ** in 19**, for instance, in history class of high school, in order to remember those kinds of knowledges which might be required to pass the examination of university.
On the other hand, almost Japanese are educated about how Japanese were damaged by atomic bombs at the end of WW2. Those education remains within this limited particular issue, so they can’t imagine how tragic the other history of war was, including the topic of Nazis.
I think we couldn’t truely understand about how tragic the victims were, if we did not face the fact of what we damaged and were damaged.
(I don’t mean the approval of atomic bombs. and also, I don’t mean that the education of atomic bombs are necessary.)

The second one is that they might forget that those who want to have the right to freedom of expression have to carry out their duty that they must not hurt anyone’s feeling, whether or not they were educated about history in high school.
I think “making products (and sell)” is one of the “expression”, the same as drawing pictures or creating art, because peoples who contact with these products would feel something like cool, comfortable, good color, good design, or dislikable sometimes.
The producers have to keep in mind that they were allowed to be free to make whatever they want, just when they don’t hurt anyone’s feeling.
I think this is the rule which the member of society have to be conscious after graduation, even if they were not educated in high school.

Those are also why I visited Auschwitzm, Birkenau, and Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, after starting to live in Europe.
and I’m a little bit in charge of one process of producing something.