時尚雙語:流浪漢變身好萊塢時尚新寵
流浪漢變身好萊塢時尚新寵
The newest sensation at the center of Hollywood's fashion scene isn't a famous designer or starlet. It's a 56-year-old homeless man who spends his days dancing on roller skates.
John Wesley Jermyn has been a fixture in West Los Angeles for more than 20 years. Nicknamed 'The Crazy Robertson' and 'The Robertson Dancer,' he is a constant presence on a stretch of Robertson Boulevard that has become the city's trendiest shopping corridor and a prime strolling spot for tourists and movie stars. Among locals and online, there's much speculation about Mr. Jermyn's personal history, including one oft-repeated rumor that he's a secretive millionaire.
In a plot twist worthy of Tinseltown, Mr. Jermyn now has a clothing label named after him. Since it was introduced last month, 'The Crazy Robertson' brand of T-shirts and sweatshirts, created by a trio of 23-year-olds, has flown off the shelves at Kitson, a haunt of tabloid stars like Paris Hilton. The clothes feature stylized images of Mr. Jermyn, including one design -- available on a $98 hoodie -- that has a graphic of him dancing and the phrase 'No Money, No Problems' on the back. At the largest of Kitson's three boutiques on Robertson, shirts bearing Mr. Jermyn's likeness are sold alongside $290 'Victoria Beckham' jeans and $50 baby shoes designed by pop star Gwen Stefani.
The label's owners, who grew up in Beverly Hills, have created a MySpace page for Mr. Jermyn. It doubles as an ad for the clothing brand and their nightclub-promotion venture, which is also named 'The Crazy Robertson.' The young entrepreneurs spent months trying to forge a relationship with Mr. Jermyn -- who now goes by the name John Jermien -- before gaining his approval. They have consulted him on design decisions and had a photographer shoot him for publicity images.
In May, Mr. Jermyn agreed to a deal that entitles him to 5% of 'net profit' from clothing sales, according to a copy of the contract seen by The Wall Street Journal. He signed the contract, without speaking to an attorney or family members. But so far he has refused to accept much cash, preferring to be paid in food, liquor and paper for his art projects, according to Teddy Hirsh, one of the label's founders. 'He tries not to involve money in his daily life,' says Mr. Hirsh, who says he is Mr. Jermyn's agent and manager for future endeavors.
Mr. Hirsh says Mr. Jermyn has already received several small payments, even though the company hasn't 'made much profit' so far. 'We haven't collected anything for ourselves,' says Mr. Hirsh.
Mr. Jermyn's slide into homelessness is a painful subject for his sister Beverly. And so is the clothing deal. She believes 'The Crazy Robertson' founders are exploiting her brother's condition to build their brand. 'I think these guys saw an opportunity and they took it,' she says. 'I am not happy with the arrangement.'
Ms. Jermyn, who lives close to the alley where Mr. Jermyn sleeps, says her brother has a form of schizophrenia. He refuses to take medication, she says, despite suffering from fits of shouting and cursing. In the years since his condition began deteriorating in the late 1970s, 'he slipped through my fingers like sand,' says Ms. Jermyn, 64, who manages facilities for Oracle Corp.
In the late 1980s she testified in court in a proceeding to force her brother to seek help, but psychological evaluators found him 'lucid and gracious,' according to Ms. Jermyn. She has made countless attempts to provide him with shelter and therapy, and she still visits him twice a week with food. She also pays for his cellphone and collects his Social Security checks on his behalf.
The repackaging of Mr. Jermyn as a fashion front man comes at a time of increased fascination with homelessness. The producers of 'Bumfights' -- a collection of videotaped street battles between vagrants -- claim to have sold more than 300,000 DVDs since 2002, and a British TV series called 'Filthy Rich and Homeless' made headlines this year for its depiction of real-life millionaires posing as London beggars.
Across the U.S., a growing number of homeless people have gained attention through the Internet. More than 17,500 videos on YouTube are tagged with the word 'homeless.' Leslie Cochran, a street resident in Austin, Texas, who has twice run for mayor, has 10,775 'friends' on his MySpace page. In Boston, the profile of Harold Madison Jr. -- a homeless man better known as 'Mr. Butch' -- rose through online clips and a Web site made in his honor.
Mr. Jermyn was raised in Hancock Park, a historic L.A. neighborhood that's home to some of the city's wealthiest families. His father managed one of L.A.'s largest Chevrolet dealerships.
A star athlete in high school, Mr. Jermyn was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 1969 Major League Baseball draft. He attended Pepperdine University and played a season for a Los Angeles Dodgers' minor-league team in Bellingham, Wash. (He hit just .205 and made 12 errors in 63 games, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.)
Joel John Roberts, chief executive of People Assisting the Homeless, which provides shelters for L.A.'s street residents, says the branding of Mr. Jermyn is 'like designing a line of clothing patterned after Iraqi refugees fleeing the war.'
Mr. Hirsh and Vic Ackerman, one of the other founders of the clothing line, are sensitive to Ms. Jermyn's concerns about her brother, but say Mr. Jermyn 'specifically asked' them not to contact her about the clothing line or the contract. They view Mr. Jermyn as a 'business partner' and say they make sure he's aware of how his image is being used.
'He knows everything that's going on,' says Mr. Ackerman, noting that Mr. Jermyn nixed a set of promotional photos because he didn't like his outfit and thought he 'looked a little puffy.'
In conversation, Mr. Jermyn speaks softly and mixes short, lucid sentences with longer, less coherent remarks. He has been arrested more than a dozen times since 1986 for violations such as trespassing and jaywalking, according to court records. Most of his skating and curb-side dancing now takes place near Robertson Boulevard, but in the past he roamed throughout Beverly Hills and West L.A., often cradling a boombox and shimmying to loud music. 'He was always an extraordinary dancer,' says Jim Horne, a classmate of Mr. Jermyn's at Los Angeles Baptist High School.
In addition to his sister, Mr. Jermyn speaks regularly with Ginny Berliner, a 64-year-old woman who befriended him when she owned an antique shop on Robertson. Mrs. Berliner, who now lives in Maryland, used to pay for Mr. Jermyn to sleep in a motel and covered his monthly coffee bill at Michel Richard, the well-known patisserie. 'He wants notoriety and glory, but he can't accept money,' she says.
On a recent afternoon, clad in his trademark black leggings and visor, Mr. Jermyn said he is 'a facilitator' for the brand, and hopes it will expand into music or film. He has become a one-man marketing team, plastering company stickers and pictures of himself on a wall that faces pedestrians on Robertson.
At Kitson's boutiques and on its Web site, the first shipment of 'Crazy Robertson' women's clothes -- about 35 items -- sold out in three days, and the store immediately ordered about 90 more pieces, according to owner Fraser Ross. Many of the online buyers were not from Los Angeles and presumably not familiar with Mr. Jermyn, he says. The brand may have appeal beyond L.A., says Mr. Ross, because its name includes 'Robertson,' which like Rodeo Drive is a destination associated with glamorous shopping.
Mr. Hirsh says the success at Kitson has already generated interest from other retailers. He calls Mr. Jermyn 'our Michael Jordan' and is looking into a trademark for 'the Crazy Robertson' name and logo.
Ms. Jermyn, meanwhile, has different hopes. 'I don't want to see my brother get hurt,' she says. 'They're taking advantage of someone who is very vulnerable and very trusting.'
好萊塢毫無疑問是引領潮流的時尚之地，而眼下，這個時尚中心最吸引人們眼球的並不是某位知名設計師或是嶄露頭角的新星，而是一位整天穿着溜冰鞋跳舞的56歲流浪漢。
他叫約翰·韋斯利•傑梅恩(John Wesley Jermyn)，他在洛杉磯西區已經呆了二十多年。人們給他起的綽號有“羅伯遜奇人”、“羅伯遜舞蹈家”，因爲他常常在西洛杉磯最新潮的購物區羅伯遜大街一帶遊蕩，這裏也是遊客和影視明星最愛光顧的地方。關於傑米恩的個人背景，當地人和互聯網上有不少傳聞，其中流傳甚廣的一個說法是，他雖然外表寒酸，其實身家百萬。
傑梅恩爲“羅伯遜奇人”品牌拍攝宣傳照聽上去夠離奇的，不過，傑梅恩的名字如今已跟一個服裝品牌有了瓜葛。這個名爲“羅伯遜奇人”的品牌是上個月推出的，產品是T恤衫和運動衫，是由三位23歲的小夥子創立的。一經問世，該品牌就在Kitson這個帕麗斯·希爾頓(Paris Hilton)等小報熱衷追捧的明星們經常光顧的專賣店裏大受歡迎。這些服裝上印着傑梅恩的超酷外形，其中一款上面有他跳舞的圖案，背上還寫着“沒錢，也沒煩惱”。Kitson專賣店在羅伯遜大街上開了三家分店，在其中最大的一家店裏，印有傑梅恩肖像的襯衫與售價290美元的“辣妹”牛仔褲和50美元的嬰兒鞋擺放在一起。那些鞋子是由明星吉恩·斯坦芬尼(Gwen Stefani)設計的。
在比弗利山長大的三位“羅伯遜奇人”設計師在 MySpace上爲傑梅恩建了網頁。該網站同時還在爲這個品牌和他們的同名夜總會做廣告。在取得傑梅恩同意之前，幾位年輕的創業家花了幾個月的時間試圖與傑梅恩拉上關係，最後終於打動了他。他現在的名字已經改爲約翰·傑米恩(John Jermien)了。小夥子們還向傑米恩徵詢對設計的意見，並請攝影師給他拍照做宣傳。
據記者看到的合同複印件，傑米恩在今年5月同意提取服裝銷售淨利潤的5%。他簽署了這項合同，但沒有向律師和家人透露。不過迄今爲止，他一直拒絕接受太多現金，他更願意接受食品、飲料和紙張，該品牌服裝的創建人特迪·赫什(Teddy Hirsh)說。“他不喜歡自己的日常生活中牽扯金錢，”。赫什說他還身兼傑米恩的經紀人及未來規劃經理。
赫什表示，傑米恩已經獲得了幾筆小額報酬，雖然公司到目前爲止“並沒有賺多少錢”。“我們自己並沒有得到什麼，”赫什說。
傑米恩落入無家可歸的境地對他姐姐貝弗莉(Beverly)來說是一個沉痛的話題。這次的服裝生意也是如此。她認爲“羅伯遜奇人”的創建人是在利用弟弟的境況炒作他們的品牌。“我想這些年輕人看到了機會就加以利用，”她說。“他們的做法讓我一點也不高興。”
貝弗莉的家離傑米恩晚上過夜的小巷不遠。她說，弟弟有某種精神分裂症；儘管他會爆發間歇性的詛咒和叫嚷，但他拒絕接受藥物治療。64歲的貝弗莉說，七十年代最後幾年，傑米恩的病情開始惡化，從此之後，“我就管不住他了”。貝弗莉現在甲骨文公司(Oracle Corp)設備管理部門工作。
八十年代後幾年，貝弗莉曾在一個法庭程序中作證，希望迫使弟弟接受幫助，但心理測試的結果顯示，傑米恩“頭腦清楚，待人和藹”。爲給弟弟提供棲身之地和醫學治療，她曾無數次地努力。現在，她每週會看望他兩次，給他帶食物去。她還支付弟弟的手機費，並代他收社會保障覈對表。
將傑米恩包裝成前衛人士的事是在無家可歸現象日益引起社會關注的背景下產生的。據稱紀錄片《遊民爭鬥》(Bumfights)已賣出了30多萬張DVD，該片講述的是街頭流浪者之間的事。另一部英國電視連續劇《暴富和赤貧》(Filthy Rich and Homeless)今年也轟動一時，它描述了裝扮成街頭乞丐的倫敦百萬富翁的生活。
在美國，越來越多的流浪者通過互聯網引起了公衆的關注。YouTube上有17,500多部視頻節目帶有“無家可歸”一詞。德克薩斯州奧斯汀的一位街頭流浪漢萊斯利·科恩(Leslie Cochran)曾兩次競選市長，他在MySpace上擁有10,755個“朋友”。在波士頓，無家可歸者哈羅德·麥迪遜(Harold Madison Jr.)因有關他的網絡視頻及一個爲他建的網站而聲名大振。
傑米恩在漢考克長大，這是洛杉磯的一個老社區，有不少洛杉磯最富有的人家也住在這裏。傑米恩的父親在洛杉磯管理一家雪佛蘭汽車大型專賣店。
傑米恩高中時代是個體育明星，曾被堪薩斯皇家棒球隊選中，參加1969年的美國職業棒球聯盟賽。後來他進入佩珀代因大學(Pepperdine University)，作爲洛杉磯Dodger隊隊員參加了在華盛頓舉行的一場小型聯盟賽。（根據美國棒球研究協會(Society for American Baseball Research)的記錄，在63場比賽中，他只有205次擊球，犯規12次。）
約耳·羅伯茨(Joel John Roberts)是“資助無家可歸者”(People Assisting the Homeless)組織的主席，該機構爲洛杉磯的街頭遊民提供住處。在他看來，給傑米恩樹立品牌就好比“在伊拉克難民逃離戰爭後，再給他們設計一塊好看的遮羞布。”
對於貝弗莉對弟弟的擔憂，赫什和傑米恩品牌另一位創立人維克·阿克曼(Vic Ackerman)很在意。不過他們表示，傑米恩“特別關照”他們不要和他姐姐提及該品牌服裝以及合同。他們把傑米恩當成“生意夥伴”，並表示他們確信傑米恩很清楚自己的形像是怎樣被使用的。
“他對每件事情都瞭如指掌，”阿克曼說。他同時指出傑米恩還否決了一組宣傳照片，因爲他不喜歡照片上的行頭，認爲自己“看上去有點愛炫耀”。
在跟傑米恩交談時，他語調柔和，表達簡短清晰，其間也穿插着較長的、不那麼連貫的評論。法庭記錄顯示，從1986年以來，他因闖紅燈和亂穿馬路等行爲被多次拘留。目前，他大多在羅伯遜大街附近溜冰或跳街舞，而過去他總是在比弗利山和西洛杉磯一帶遊逛，還常常帶着內置揚聲器，伴隨刺耳的音樂舞動。“他一直是個與衆不同的舞者，”吉姆·霍恩(Jim Horne)說。他是傑米恩的高中同學。
傑梅恩上學時曾參加棒球隊除了姐姐，傑米恩還經常與基尼·柏林格(Ginny Berliner)聯絡。柏林格是位64歲的老太太，曾在羅伯遜大街開過古玩店，那時兩人成了朋友。老太太如今住在馬里蘭，過去曾爲傑米恩付過汽車旅館的住宿費和法式蛋糕店Michel Richard的咖啡賬單。“他想出名，但他不會接受金錢，”柏林格說。
不久前的一個下午，照例帶着黑色綁腿、帶着他那標誌性帽盔的傑米恩表示，他是“羅伯遜奇人”品牌的“推動者”，他希望該品牌能進軍音樂和影視領域。他是行銷獨行俠，在羅伯遜大街兩旁的牆壁上張貼公司的標識及自己的畫像。
在Kitson 專賣店以及公司網站上，第一批約35件“羅伯遜奇人”牌女式服裝在三天內銷售一空。店主弗拉舍·羅斯(Fraser Ross)表示，他們立即又訂購了約90件。他說，許多網上客戶不在洛杉磯，估計也不太瞭解傑米恩。該品牌也許能吸引其他地方的顧客，大概因爲它的名字中有羅伯遜三個字吧，就好像羅迪歐大道(Rodeo Drive)總是被人們與高檔購物聯繫起來。
赫什說，Kitson的成功已引起其他零售商的興趣。他稱傑米恩是“我們的邁克爾·喬丹(Michael Jordan)，他正在爲“羅伯遜奇人”的名字和標識申請商標註冊。
不過，貝弗莉卻不希望這樣。“我不想看到弟弟受傷害，”她說。“他們在利用那些非常容易受傷害、願意相信他人的人。”
