braided sweater 1983

This braided knit sweater would not look out of place if it appeared on the runway today for the current fall/winter collection or even the next fall/winter collection. Looking like a cross between SNS Herning and Fabric Interseasons, it is actually from the comme des garcons fall/winter 1983 collection, looking as relevant (perhaps irreverent) today as it was more than 25 years ago. There is a sense of timelessness, but not of the kind one would normally associate with classic lines and simplicity, and being able to fall within the narrow and constantly shifting bounds of social and aesthetic conventions over time. Timelessness, in this case, is achieved by operating at the margins of or beyond these conventions, outside the realm of trends (but I must caution that there is a fine line between this and being purely wilful and irrelevant). The clutch of simplicty is shrugged off and the garment, rich in expression but decidedly undateable, bears the ability, and indeed demands, to be revisited time and again.