ABOVE: Examples from the golden age of subway-car graffiti in New York. A block-party/fashion show has been denied a permit because artists were going to be doing graffiti murals on replica subway cars.

We’ve come down pretty hard in the past on fashion labels, but today we felt it was necessary to speak for poor little Marc Ecko, the titular designer of Ecko wares, who has been denied the necessary permit to hold a street party to launch the Ecko-designed, graffiti-based video game “Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.” The event was to feature graffiti artists painting murals onto replicas of New York subway cars, but some serious buzzkills at City Hall said that this would encourage people to start vandalizing the real subway again. Ecko et al. have called foul, saying the Mayor’s office is infringing artistic expression.

The artists—and we recognize that some people object to the use of the term in this context, preferring “vandals”—should be allowed to paint. The organizers of the party have committed to leaving even the asphalt pristine by putting tarps down and cordoning off the spray zone. The goal of the event is obviously to sell a boatload of video games, but that’s no reason these people shouldn’t be allowed to temporarily revive an influential and pervasive artistic moment in the history of New York City. There was a time in Manhattan when practically every train car had an elaborate abstract nickname sprayed onto its flank; not everyone remembers it fondly, but it was a cultural landmark regardless, and refusing to allow it based on some phantom intimations of vandalism yet-to-come is specious. This is art in the name of commerce, but it’s still art, and deserves to be seen.

LINK: Newsday > Fashion designer says he’ll sue New York mayor for calling off his graffiti party