AW05 Undercover 85 Reworked ‘Arts & Crafts’ Distressed Blue Denim

Jun Takahashi’s Autumn 2005 collection titled ‘Arts & Crafts’ brought a matured vision of child-like play to the runway. Inspired by the youthful inclination to create art through miscellaneous objects and materials, the Japanese designer set out to create ‘incomplete’ looking renditions of everyday garments. Distressing, cutting and seemingly gluing numerous tops and bottoms, Takahashi would walk hybrid designs, while maintaining a predominately muted tonal palette. Cluttering the runway with clones of napoleon style figurines, models would sport false, wool hairstyles and overly abstract textures to enhance the illusion of an imaginary world. Truly leaning in to the fantasy vision of an infant, Takahashi masterfully constructed a real life interpretation of children’s play, while simultaneously creating a platter of all-time grails.

 

Debuting in the Autumn 2005 collection, this pair of ‘85’ denim sits at the peak of Takahashi’s design portfolio. Renowned as the most expensive Undercover item publicly sold, even the name itself is rooted in opulence, named after its original price tag of ¥85,000. Featuring a series of distressed patch elements and repair techniques, hits of red and green thread are found throughout, in pair with Patti Smith’s iconic lightning bolt motif on the knee. Finished with metallic hardware along the waistband which is etched with skull and crossbones detailing, these impossibly rare jeans are truly one of kind. In great condition, these bottoms fit a size 30x30.