“Hi Glynnis, I’ve been working on the press release and it’s sounding too cheesy no matter how I put it so I’ve given up. Here’s just a straight-up explanation of the shirt:
The shirt is from the fall 2001 season which is entitled “Collapsing New Buildings” (kind of after Einstürzende Neubauten). The concept for the line is all about deteriorating modern architecture. I got so tired of Wallpaper and other magazines pushing international style or mid-century architecture so hard that it was getting played out overnight, so this line is about the international-style buildings that are falling apart. Rather than making clothes with unfinished hems or frayed edges I chose to go the other route and make well-tailored clothes that are designed to fall apart. The shirt is made of water-soluble fabric and thread. Every piece from the line comes with a condensed version of the collapsing new buildings manifesto, which is printed on a label sewn into the garment. The label on the shirt is placed at the front pocket just above the hem.
Other notes about the shirt: the shirt comes with a CD Rom that has a 10-minute movie of the shirt decaying.
Let me know if you have any questions. I’m going to San Diego for the weekend, so if you write back I probably won’t reply until after the weekend.
Thanks,
Oliver.”
OLIVER HELDEN
Oliver’s water-soluble shirt as well as the flash lame shirt and the junkie shirt are available at 1 on G in New York, at Douglas Fir in LA and at M.A.C. in San Francisco.
