With an anonymous designer at the helm, non-gender, non-demographic fashion brand 69 resolves its own identity crisis in a show at the L.A. museum.
How did 69 make enough waves in art, culture and fashion to warrant an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) with an designer who refuses to be identified? The pioneering Los Angeles-based denim lifestyle brand was established in 2011 with a clear vision of transcending fashion entirely. The show, on view through October 28 at the MOCA Pacific Design Center, comes with the cheeky title “Déjà Vu,” speaking to the archival nature of the objects, textile sculptures and garments. MOCA deems the garments as “non-gender and non-demographic-specific clothing” from an anonymous designer. Utilitarian in nature, and made mostly from a uniform denim in exaggerated patterns of commonplace workwear, the line is entirely genderless and has been since the brand’s conception. The models shown (apart from animals) wear morph suits underneath their clothing to appear as mannequins. “Déjà Vu” is a break from the label-crazed state of fashion and looks to a future where your imagination can run —or dance, like in the accompanying video — away with you.