Collection: Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ was a New York-based fashion label founded by Tara Subkoff in 1999, operating at the intersection of fashion, performance, art-world critique, and downtown social culture. Emerging alongside the post-Margiela generation of designers treating damage, exhaustion, imperfection, reuse, and collapse as aesthetic material, Imitation of Christ became one of the defining labels of early 2000s anti-commercial fashion culture.

Rather than conventional runway presentations, the label staged guerrilla actions, institutional interventions, and hybrid events — including disruptions at Sotheby’s and Dior, sweatshop-politics-informed productions, and celebrity-cast presentations that collapsed distinctions between fashion show, performance, and social document. Collaborators and participants included figures from downtown New York’s art, music, and nightlife networks.

In September 2002, Imitation of Christ: A Retrospective was presented with Jeffrey Deitch Curatorial Projects at the Maurice Villency flagship store, New York — transforming a fashion presentation into a self-conscious institutional gesture. Material from these events is exceptionally scarce, having circulated informally through stylists, assistants, PR offices, artists, and musicians rather than institutional archives.

This collection brings together printed matter, ephemera, and photographic material connected to Imitation of Christ’s events and productions.