Fall 2001 Ready To Wear - Imitation of Christ Fall 2001 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Runway Review

NEW YORK, February 13, 2001 – After a long day of back-to-back shows, the fashion flock trekked uptown to the Clearview Theaters on 66th Street, where Tara Subkoff and Matt Damhave, known as Imitation of Christ, showed their second collection, yet again full of spruced-up secondhand clothes, this time with a focus on archly flashy evening wear.

How could they possibly follow up last season's funeral parlor presentation? With a faux movie premiere. After being asked to make a charity donation to Sweatshop Watch and Free the Children, guests took their seats and watched live footage of models arriving to the theater for an imaginary premiere dressed as prom queens, party girls, giddy starlets, slinky old-school divas, '30s flappers and '80s good-time girls. After the good-time girls settled in the front rows, Subkoff and Damhave showed a short movie depicting the trials and tribulations of L.A.'s gilded youth (with a bit of philosophy and a suicide thrown in for good measure), featuring appearances by Élodie Bouchez, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair. In a small corner of the screen, a documentary about the harsh working conditions in Central American free-trade zones was simultaneously presented.

What of the clothes, you ask? In Imitation of Christ's world, the question seems to be rather irrelevant.

– By Armand Limnander

STYLE FILE