Marc Jacobs used Soviet style to sell clothing. The Soviet images recall a time when young people had reason to act out against an oppressive government. Insecure or socially unsure youth can find this particularly appealing as the reference can make them seem more intelligent or interesting. A person putting on this façade of alternativeness, vintageness, and appreciation towards ideological academia of the cold war era currently falls under the label ‘hipster’ (and one with money to burn, noting the 400 dirham price tag.) The ‘wannabe’ nature of this shirt to seem foreign or kitsch just for the sake of being different is supported by the fact that the Russian on the shirt means nothing. I asked three Russian speakers, and the lettering is just random Russian characters. 

Marc Jacobs utilizes old images that bridge cultural familiarities to literally sell identification with Soviet movements involving government discontent. The images, though random and benign alone, form a soviet propaganda feel when put together alongside Russian characters and red, black, and white. The similarity to such propaganda is the cultural reference that Marc Jacobs' customers pay for – they pay for their clothing to make offbeat references for them. They purchase a perfectly engineered capitalist's communist commodity.