Viktor & Rolf blurred the line between fashion and art Saturday, turning their fall-winter 2010-11 runway show into a performance piece where the Dutch design duo dressed and undressed a '90s supermodel into forms that at times resembled a tent, a Yeti or a Playboy bunny.
As the soundtrack of industrial racket clanked overhead, the model, Kristen McNameny, appeared in her tent-like incarnation at the top of the runway. She waddled over to a rotating platform, set into the middle of the catwalk, and Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren started stripping off layer after layer, like the skin of an onion or Russian stacking dolls.
Wearing their trademark plastic-framed nerd eyeglasses, the designers transferred each removed layer _ first maxi-greatcoats and oversized fox fur coats; then lighter parkas hung with swinging drawstrings _ onto another model, who then walked the catwalk.
After McNameny was pared down to a strapless bustier, the pair repeated the process in reverse: stripping the other models and piling the layers back on. The crowning look was an oversized bustle in stiff tulle that was stripped off an evening look and hung round McNameny's neck, like an oversized collar.
It was a novel exercise, and the crowd of fashion insiders _ many of whom have sat through more than 100 more-conventional shows in New York, London and Milan over the past month _ hooted enthusiastically.
But the spectacle itself distracted attention away from the clothes, which were basically big, bulky and black. Perhaps keeping the clothing in the background was exactly the point.
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