Possessed, <\/i>the much-anticipated Eckhaus Latta exhibit, opened this past Friday at the Whitney Museum\u2014marking the museum\u2019s first ever shoppable space in one of their galleries, as well as their first fashion-related exhibition in 21 years. Split into three sections, the show depicts a distillation of today\u2019s consumer culture. The exhibit, as founders Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta told me, doesn\u2019t have one overall theme as much as it simply poses a question.<\/p>\n
There was one question in particular that I couldn\u2019t quite kick: isn\u2019t forcing us to question why we buy the things we do a bit counterintuitive to running a fashion label? Put differently: why leave me mulling over an Eckhaus Latta mohair cropped top I just bought \u2014 and which, in certain lights, is a dead ringer for air conditioning insulator \u2014 when you could just\u2026 not?<\/p>\n
It recalls a trend among designers in recent years to portray themselves as approachable \u2014 as \u201cone of us.\u201d Maria Grazia Chiuri did it \u2014 if quite poorly \u2014 when she sent models down the runway in shirts that read \u201cI\u2019m a feminist,\u201d as if that would instantly put her in our good graces. As if putting the phrase \u201cI\u2019m a feminist\u201d on a t-shirt must necessarily mean that it\u2019s true. New York-based label Vaquera does it with their ironic and rather hyperbolic designs \u2014 sending a model down the runway in a life-size Tiffany\u2019s pouch, for instance \u2014 that seem to be one big, slightly veiled \u201cfuck you\u201d to capitalism. And then of course there\u2019s Demna Gvasalia, whose design-stunts often confirm the meaningless (and rather ludicrous) state of our current consumer culture.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
The difference between these designers and Eckhaus Latta, however, is that the bicoastal brand has been doing this since they first launched \u2014 long before you could buy a DHL t-shirt for upwards of $200 \u2014 and with incredible designs too. And, in doing so, they\u2019ve built an aesthetic that\u2019s distinctly, irrefutably them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why anyone familiar with Eckhaus Latta would know that the lightbox ads in the first section of the exhibit were obviously made in jest. Because, despite featuring their clothes and oft-used models (barring Gemma Ward \u2014 that kind of threw me for a loop), the ads \u2014 all glossy, fit for an airport, flashy, and canned \u2014 reek of a strain of elitism that\u2019s the antithesis of what Eckhaus and Latta represent. But then, to assume that must mean that their label is entirely inclusive wouldn\u2019t be completely accurate either. And I have residual tremors from their SS17 show to prove it.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Eckhaus Latta\u2019s exclusivity is of an art school ilk. They\u2019re intimidating, in other words, precisely because they often evade clarity. Take their usual show notes \u2014 which aren\u2019t exactly notes as much as indecipherable poems. I distinctly remember reading notes for their SS17 show, while waiting for it to begin, and cackling at well, the whole thing, but one part in particular: \u201cAs all my flesh moves toward the center of my face like an anus \/ My eyes are sea urchins and all I can think to say is \/ ‘Charge her.’\u201d But when I looked up for some sort of chuckle \u2014 or at the very least, a nod\u2014of agreement, I was instead met with a sea of self-serious patrons wearing stoic expressions, timepieces and monocles. It left me seriously questioning my sanity, and whether I was missing an essential underlying message behind the poem. \u201cThis was <\/i>funny, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d I wondered. \u201cOur iPhones do <\/i>still tell the time, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n
With Possessed<\/i>, however, <\/i>the message \u2014 and \u201cjoke,\u201d if that\u2019s what you want to call our perversely excessive consumer habits \u2014 was entirely clear. And the public is certainly in on it.<\/p>\n
The second part of the exhibit, the shoppable space, contains racks of clothing that Eckhaus and Latta made specifically for this show, and which you can try on in the makeshift dressing room \u2014 which, along with every other display case, furnishing, decoration, and even lighting in the room, was a commissioned artwork by friends and family of the designers.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
As they explained it, the exhibit-cum-retail-space is their way of \u201cexperimenting within the context of an art institution and what that means when commerce is involved.\u201d Well, for one, it means that visitors are allowed to touch and interact with the art. Bridging the gap between elite art institutions and the lowly art school student, the exhibit left you wondering at times if this was all just an elaborate prank being played on the Whitney. A haphazardly-assembled fan, for instance, adorned with photos of the designers, by the Portland-based artist Jessi Reaves, is titled \u201cI\u2019m a fan.\u201d Socks on display (and available for purchase) bore the phrase, \u201cWHO\u2019S PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS?\u201d And a pair of jeans with \u201cMOST PLACES COME UNDONE\u201d printed on the side \u2014 jeans that you can also take home, but that don\u2019t seem to promise a very long shelf life. It\u2019s almost as if they\u2019re testing the Whitney\u2019s patience.<\/p>\n
The last room in the exhibit is arranged as an amateur surveillance room, with the entire back wall filled with screens playing footage from Eckhaus Latta\u2019s L.A. store, from retailers that carry the label\u2019s clothing, and a live stream of the actual exhibit. In other words, you have full access to both the consumer-facing and the company-facing side of a retail space. Purchase an item in the exhibit, and you can then relive that purchase in the surveillance room, and examine exactly how you justified buying a knit sweater for $3500, and the fleeting sense of gratification that it gave you. (To be fair, that was just one <\/i>knit sweater available for purchase; others were much more reasonably priced).<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
If breaking down the habits of today\u2019s consumer culture in order to illuminate its inherent fallacies seems like a strange decision for people who ultimately rely on such fallacies to keep their business afloat \u2014 you\u2019d be right. But perhaps that\u2019s the point. Perhaps, as Eckhaus and Latta see it, things have gotten so dire \u2014 our consumer culture has gotten so out of control \u2014 that they\u2019re willing to risk their business to draw attention to it.<\/p>\n
Then again, it could just be another grand attempt to convey that they \u201cget it.\u201d That you can buy their clothes guilt-free because they don\u2019t feed into capitalism \u2014 they resist it. \u201cTry stuff on, too,\u201d Latta said to me after answering some questions. \u201cDo it\u201d<\/i> she said, when I told her I didn\u2019t want to be the first.<\/p>\n