Is The New: Nameplates and Sex Bombs?

May 23, 2007 @ 2:17pm

Have nameplate necklaces been replaced... by mud flap girls?

FabSugar has a feature today about the jewels, and we admit, we've been seeing them a lot lately. The charms capture the same trashy, supposedly cool vibe as their nameplate predecessor, but we like them even less.

Why?

Well, at least the nameplate necklace represented you - can anyone except for Dina Lohan claim that their identity, essence, or spirit is a mud flap girl? Ew!

Maybe we're missing something - a vague strain of women's liberation, reclaiming your inner sex symbol, whatever - but we don't get it.

Our favorite alternatives:

The Alex and Chloe "Kate" necklace, in which the girl is beautiful but upright, and hopefully walking away from the mud flap girls. It's $60.

Meanwhile, the "Angry" and "Calm" necklaces from I Am Accessories start at $38.

Bonus: The company gives its proceeds to charity.

Double Bonus: You won't be copying Sarah Jessica Parker. Which is, of course, a style sin of the highest rank.

posted by eric

May 23, 2007 2:31PM

thank you, fashionista, for finally putting on blast those ladies who bit SJP's style. they must be stopped.

posted by anonymous

May 23, 2007 3:02PM

nameplate's existed way before satc ask anyone who grew up in an urban area. it's kind of like crediting the popularity of door knocker earrings to lily allen

posted by Faran

May 23, 2007 3:04PM

Those nameplate necklaces would have never left the urban area if it weren't for Pat Field...

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 3:11PM

faran- that is quite the ignorant statement my dear....

posted by Faran

May 23, 2007 3:16PM

ok, help me out: where else did the nameplate necklace appear in popular culture that made it a must-have accessory in mainstream america? I fully admit I could be missing something major, my brain was mostly erased from 1999-2001 when I watched SATC every week.

posted by Brooklyn

May 23, 2007 3:24PM

I don't know about pop culture appearances, but every girl in my lily-white 6th grade class in suburban Florida HAD to have a gold name plate necklace, and that was 1990.

posted by quietriot

May 23, 2007 3:24PM

the alex and chloe stuff is fun. these kinda silhouette and one word charms are cool and all, but what about charms that are beautifully handmade or just inspired? have you seen the made her think line or black sheep & prodigal sons. i'm surprised there's no coverage on the genart event that happened last night since some past winners have gone on to be cfda nominees.

posted by e

May 23, 2007 3:27PM

Like there weren't a million and one homegirls rocking nameplates long before Pat co-opted it...let's give credit where it's not due.

posted by chloe

May 23, 2007 3:43PM

yes we all had nameplate necklaces as girls or knew someone who had but would you have ever worn it 10 years later?? i think that is the point...someone brought them back or brought it to a whole new level and while it might not have been pat field i can't think of anyone else....

posted by chloe

May 23, 2007 3:43PM

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 3:55PM

all hip hop artists wore nameplate necklaces all throught the 80s and 90s.

posted by tanya

May 23, 2007 4:18PM

So in other words, nameplates weren't "legit" because only black people wore them? It took a white lady to make them "real fashion"?

Faran, please check yourself. You sound real ignorant and racist.

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 4:27PM

i don't think i'll be buying ANY of these necklaces - esp. the mudflap girl

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 4:29PM

i second tanya.

posted by HeatherChandler

May 23, 2007 4:36PM

I can definately say that girls in DC (and of course NYC) were rockin' the nameplates as early as the 1980's. How long will it be until we see a piece about how white girls are now walking around with this new fashion accessory -bejewelled, airbrushed acrylic nails? This shit isn't new Faran.

posted by Faran

May 23, 2007 4:38PM

I can't do a piece on giant airbrushed nails. They get in the way of guitar playing and opening Coke cans, so I don't really understand them. I've always wanted to make my own though...

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 4:41PM

But Faran is RIGHT. Nameplate necklaces weren't embraced by suburban white girls until Sex and the City. Stop yelling racist, thats so boring. Lets talk about how offensive those mudflap necklaces are instead!

posted by Sammy

May 23, 2007 4:49PM

Faran, re: Those nameplate necklaces would have never left the urban area if it weren't for Pat Field...

I kinda understood where this came from , but also felt a little offended re: the urban...

Saying that the MOB girls posted about the door knocker / nameplate trend quite some time back on their blog - http://www.mobliving.com/blog/4

posted by HeatherChandler

May 23, 2007 4:52PM

@ Anonymous

I don't think it's racist, but I do think it exemplifies a certain level of fashion ignorance...and this is a fashion blog. I think Faran does a great job in posting. I just wish she would show a bit of the same fashion knowledge she uses when posting fashion trivia when she's reporting on trends that have been around since she was a fetus.

Example: Just because you were born in the 1980's and have no true reference point does not mean Madonna made the beret culturally relevant.

posted by Faran

May 23, 2007 4:52PM

I can understand how you felt that way, and I don't think the comment "sounded" the way it's been taken, if that makes sense.

I also love MOB and I'm so glad you linked it, it's a good reminder for me to do a post on them in the future.

Sorry if I offended you, and maybe this is a testament to how clueless I am, but I never thought about a nameplate necklace until SATC, and I know I'm representative of a lot of suburban-bred (and yes, white) girls.

Anyway, back to the topic - are the Angry necklaces cute?

posted by e

May 23, 2007 4:54PM

So fashion isn't legit until white girls embrace it? Good to know. Can't wait to get my keffiya and door knockers at Urban so I can get as many cultures in there as possible.

posted by e

May 23, 2007 5:00PM

also, nice of married to the mob to white about white girls coopting their culture, then put this out.
http://www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2007/05/23/married-to-the-mob-summer-07-collection/#more-3054
NICE NECKLACE

posted by dre

May 23, 2007 5:07PM

Um....White Trash Charms came out with mudflap necklaces a couple of years ago...

my family is made up of gaudy Cubans & Puerto Ricans...I've been rocking the nameplate necklace since I was 9. White girls have been doing it since 2001 (or whenever SATC was on)

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 5:21PM

I just have to add my two cents as a white girl from Connecticut- I graduated high school in 1993 and pretty much BEGGED my parent for a nameplate necklace for graduation, because i was the last girl in my HS to have one. So- yeah- white girls have been wearing them for a while too!

posted by guest

May 23, 2007 5:23PM

stop beating on Faran... she rocks...

and I think the angry necklaces are cute... but i don't think that I would wear one..

posted by charming since 1992

May 23, 2007 6:32PM

"...Samantha, wearing the butt-ugliest gold pendant of a mudflap girl, pronounces Aidan's tactic "tacky." No, hon, that necklace is tacky."

still is... but "angry" sounds perfect for any Bitten crashers :)

http://tv.yahoo.com/sex-and-the-city/show/episode/8367/recap&vers=long&start=1

posted by katie

May 23, 2007 6:35PM

Jiminy Cricket...some of you girls are mean as hell.

That said, all these necklaces look pretty cheap; I wouldn't wear any of them, and even in elementary school I thought the nameplate ones were tacky, tacky, tacky.

posted by BROOKE ELIZA DULIEN

May 23, 2007 8:41PM

Hello,
Currently I am on a lovely beach in the North Shore and upon doing some blog catch ups, decided to read up on fashionisa.com and see what Faran has been writing on this week. Lo and behold, my "mud flap girl" which is carried at the lovely boutique " lisa kline" was on blast. Interestingly enough, I would like to let everyone know that Pat Fields herself has been rocking that particular piece over 6 years ago after she put it on the Samantha character. This is not a new item and I find it hilarious that it is up for discussion. At the time it was released and 3 months in to my company "italian vogue" put it on it's cover and titled it "street style", so I must have been doing something right ....Also, If you are talking about "name plate necklaces", yes lovelys, I believe, they are "back" (key words, "BACK", they are not a NEW phenomenom, they have been around since the 70's....on another note, I come from the Andrea Lieberman camp (I assisted her for six years back in the day and she is also a dear friend) whom I can assure you is not the "hollywood stylist" you are referring to in the other blog........Also Note, she is from NEW YORK, Not Hollywood..... (technically, she could be considered bi coastal as she resides in both locations)...
Aloha, and for current badgering of my collections, can you please be more current and pick out items which are newly released, not over 6 years old ....www.whitetrashcharms.com

I love a good blog discussion,
xo
brookie D.

posted by Bonnie Lass

May 23, 2007 11:11PM

I'd totally do the mudflap charm. But I'm gay, so the meaning would come across a little different if I was wearing it =P

posted by myown2cents

May 24, 2007 7:50AM

My mom, and all her 6th, 7th, 8th grade girlfriends had gold nameplate necklaces.... mid 1960's. Everything comes back in fashion. EVERYTHING...

posted by guest

May 24, 2007 10:50AM

okay, so no one said they DIDN'T exist before SATC. let's move on.
as someone stated, calling someone racist is boring and in this instance, ridiculously contrived. I like to read the comments when they're ABOUT the post, not to engage in childish fashion blog cat fights.

no to mud flap girls, yes to adjectives!

posted by JD

May 24, 2007 10:50AM

no to mud flap girls, yes to adjectives!

posted by lmd

May 24, 2007 1:51PM

Were someone to make a necklace out of the feministing.com logo mudflap girl, I'd consider that...

posted by Pimento

Jun 11, 2007 5:08PM

These charm/nameplate necklaces are look like fashion's version of Christmas ornaments.

I think you have to find the perfect one to really make it work -- otherwise you end of looking like you're channeling Carrie Bradshaw's "Carrie" necklace-look a la SIC.