I spent three weeks last autumn in a showroom in Antwerp, surrounded by garments deconstructed to the point of abstraction. Coats with no armholes. Shirts with no buttons. Trousers that functioned more as architectural proposals than clothing. The designer told me something I have not stopped thinking about since: the future of fashion is the garment that makes itself unnecessary.
The Structure That Consumed Itself
There is a moment in every designer's practice when the object stops being an object and becomes an argument. The destroyed sneaker sold for eighteen hundred and fifty dollars at retail. The garbage pouch became the most-photographed accessory of the season. Neither was designed to be worn in any conventional sense. Both were designed to be discussed.