Are those pants or sculpture? Chicago auction house takes couture beyond the runway
CHICAGO - One recent morning, a man roughly the size of an NFL linebacker shoved me aside so he could exit a crowded subway car first. As we rode the narrow escalator to the street, his broad, meaty back rising like a wall in front of me, I thought, "I bet that wouldn't have happened if I were wearing the pants."
The pants I had in mind were a pair I had seen a fewlesldays before: blood-red trousers designed by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons. One might best describe them as overalls, because they hang from shoulder straps.
But there's more: They are large, asymmetrical, pieced together from different fabrics, and angle out awkwardly in a wide trapezoid from waist to thighs before tapering to narrow ankles. One leg is partly made of padded rings held together by straps. The word contraption comes to mind. As a piece of clothing, they are startlingly odd. But that's missing the point: The
