The invitations to Undercover’s AW03 season were printed on cutout silhouettes — an oblique medium which revealed itself to be fitting of the season, “Paper Doll.” The season was highly deconstructed, featuring overlapping fabrics, clashes of loop wheeled shirts and wool knits, and patterns changing on a dime. It evoked visions of handmade dolls, pieced together with whatever scraps a young child can find.

This jacket features an array of emblems that were likewise placed across tops from the same collection. The iconography is cryptic, desert-focused, and subtly evocative of death. These thematic allusions make sense when considering Jun’s fall ’03 output, as he stood against the United States’s then-recent invasion of Iraq. This was a significantly bolder stand than it may appear in retrospect, as the war wielded an approval rating of over 50% in its early months. Though this jacket doesn’t allude to the conflict head on, as the collection’s desert camo jackets bearing graphics of George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden did, but when viewed in context, the Arabic writing, skulls, and scorpions form a cohesive implication.

Condition: 9/10. No significant flaws.

Tagged size: Medium

Shoulder: 18.5in

Pit to pit: 22.5in

Length: 26in

Sleeve: 31.5in (measured from neck)