AKA'd

 

Not since the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon became the standard for strange celebrity associations has a word smithing game been so popular.

The game is fairly simple, you take your favorite designer(s) and then replace their name with a TV counterpart that shares some similar characteristic, or attribute, the more obscure the connection the better. You know you’ve done well if the name “sticks”. The best players are usually of a certain age, which immediately catch the reference. For instance Marc Jacobs is AKA’d as Judy Garland, which is a great AKA, except if you're 18, like one of my students, who didn’t know who Judy Garland was until I explained “You know, Dorothy, from the “Wizard of Oz”, she still didn't quite get it.

For instance, Kimora Lee and Russell Simmons are AKA’d as Mortica and Gomez Addams, Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler are AKA’d as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, Dianne Von Furstenberg and Barry Diller are AKA’d as Lillian and Herman Munster, (wicked smile) Dean and Dan Caaten are AKA’d as Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (also AKA'd as “Michele Tanners” in the trade), Victor and Rolf are AKA’d as Laverne and Shirley, and Dolce and Gabbana are AKA’d Fonzy and Potsy. You get the gist. Once their comparable names are established, they are referred to on the sly as in “Did you just see Mortica on E; she’s one Botox away from Carolyn Adams.” Even reading the driest WWD story is secretly injected with unintentional humor when you read that Fonzy and Potsy are opening a new store in Milan.

Some of the AKA’s are divisive, some are sweet, some are meant to skewer, others are just for fun. My favorite, well, it’s a tie, Donald and Ivanka Trump are AKA’d as Fred and Pebbles Flintstone, and Karl Lagerfeld…no, no, I dare not say…you guess.