National Park Service/Facebook"> clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

This is How Vogue Does a Sleepover at Alcatraz

Photo via <a href="http://www.nps.gov/">National Park Service</a>/Facebook
Photo via National Park Service/Facebook

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Vogue went to Alcatraz for an overnight stay, and as unglamorous as a night in the former penitentiary would be for anyone else, the pub and its writer almost make the visit sound chic. There were walks through the gardens ("originally planted by the wives of officers") and an after-dark tour of the Ai Weiwei art exhibition, @Large ("it would have been nice to see pieces like With Wind, a glorious flying Chinese dragon, in the light of day"). But what made this experience decidedly Vogue was the writer's packing list: new Patagonia backpack, sleeping bag, and headlamp ("I'm pretty sure I'm the only person ever to cough up $270 [at REI] just to spend a night behind bars") and a cashmere Ralph Lauren travel pillow. It's a step up from the two sheets and pillows issued to prisoners upon arrival from 1934 to 1963. Perhaps if it was done the Vogue way, no inmate would ever have dreamed to escape, coldwater swim or not.
· My Night at Alcatraz: Sleeping Over at San Francisco's Most Storied Prison [Vogue]
· Kaftan Designer Visits SF, Is Moved by Alcatraz [Racked SF]