The Western world was brought to a crossroads in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The fall of the Berlin Wall, Reaganomics, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and other nation altering events had exsaserbated the schism between the working class and the elite, a divide mirrored in fashion through the emergence of “anti-fashion” designers like Martin Margiela, who rejected the haughty conventions of runway presentations in lieu of his own DIY shows. Economies slumped across the world, and Walter felt himself lost and frustrated, believing he had a foot in each camp but was neither wholly of the fashion elite or the streets. He expressed this with a magazine he created alongside his assistants, which declared “Fuck Fashion”, and “Fashion is Dead”. The exact phrasing can be connected to the existentialist declaration, “God is Dead”, first spoken by Nietzsche and later repeated by Sartre and others. In their use of the phrase, it was not literal but rather an expression of man’s freedom to choose their own essence. Walter was likely applying it in the same sense. The magazine presented Walter as an alien, wearing a mask designed by a young Raf Simons, who was interning for him at the time. Other assistants illustrated games, and shared their predictions for the future of fashion. Fake advertisements even appeared, including one for a ficticious perfume, with Walter’s dog Sado perched atop it.

These pants bare the same “Fashion is Dead” declaration, in an unrefined sketch style which further lends to his rejection of mainstream fashion.

Condition: 8/10. Small stains throughout - difficult to notice.

Tagged size: L

Waist: 17in

Rise: 13in

Thigh: 13in

Inseam: 34in

Hem: 6.5in