Sruli Recht

Writing of the custom-made "An Emperor's New Untangling" shirt, made of genetically modified spider silk, Reykjavik-based designer Sruli Recht poetically describes the process of knitting the suprisingly strong fibers into "the emperor's new clothing, an undergarment to protect the hearts of an empire." The "Horset," the man's corset-like garment made of horsehair, is made by "Asthildur Magnusdottir, a woman of iron will and a brain in each finger, [who] wove 3cm a day in the dead darkness of an epic Icelandic winter...from the waste products of the horse farms and slaughterhouses." These pieces show that the combination of soft, gossamer lightness and hard structure can coexist in the contemporary man's wardrobe. In Recht's words, "It's about making things that people didn't know they needed, but now can't live without-perhaps because they are functional, perhaps because they look nice, but mostly because they provide them with a new way of experiencing things in life."