What are your first memories of each of the brands? How did you discover them, or what sticks with you?
BAV: Viktor & Rolf was actually one of the first brands I ever knew of, actually because of the H&M collaboration. I remember my parents had some of that. I also remember when I was little I was very obsessed with the Flowerbomb commercial.
BB: For me, thinking about looking at commercial magazines from my teenage years, it’s the scent of Flowerbomb that sticks with you. It comes back immediately. To me that’s the scent of flipping through, I don’t know, for instance, a Vogue, from that era.
BAV: It’s interesting to think that maybe Flowerbomb was a sort of entryway to the brand for a lot of people. It was sort of [the way] avant-garde fashion that reached the masses in a way.
The first time I saw Imitation of Christ was actually on fashion TV, they had an episode about them. I remember they were showing the collection where the guests walked out and the models were the audience—and the vacuuming show, the naked women vacuuming.
Those shows are interesting specifically in comparison to the types of shows that are happening today. I feel like there is a correlation between that kind of immediate punchiness that a lot of people are doing today, like very like in your face concept shows. Imitation of Christ did that and it read so differently. When you see people do shows like that today you can tell that it’s for social media, that’s the primary reason.
BB: Or if not, you maybe read it through that lens anyway. I think we’re able to appreciate that type of show now, like kind of looking back at it with a bit of nostalgia as well, because if we were to see something like that today, I don’t know if we would read it the same way.
BAV: If you had that idea back then, it would mean such a different thing because it would just be for the shocking experience of being there, not for the shock wave that you would have from a social media response.
BB: I actually just remembered my first experience of Imitation of Christ. I used to work at Opening Ceremony on the shop floor and they carried IOC. I remember not fully understanding at that point. Of course it was interesting, but I didn’t really understand why these garments had such a high value without understanding the context that they were living in.
BAV: I remember I saw an interview with them where they were talking about some of the negative critique they were getting. They were like, “Yeah, people think we’re really lazy, that we don’t want to make any clothes. They don’t think we’re real designers.” It’s so funny that today it’s so celebrated.
The public will have access to the installation and the magazine this Sunday, June 28, 2026.
