On a platform of compacted soda cans, Raf Simons presented a treatise on consumer culture for Spring 2003. The predominantly black collection, titled Consumed, was not a rebuttal to fashion’s “buy, buy, buy!” mantra, but a theory of how to do it Simons’s way. Words like membership and resisted were printed on tees alongside takes on the corporate logos for PlayStation 2, Canon, and a “Sun Bank.” In the show notes, the brand wrote: “Today’s living environment is about consuming as well as being consumed; some suggest this could lead to an apocalyptic end, while others, particularly younger generations, take this reality as their cue to create new, more viable and flexible personas.”
Those shifting personalities took to the runway in clothes that went beyond clever graphics. Harness-like vests had camping-inspired pouches and special compartments to hold cigarettes, while jackets and trousers were cut big with a utilitarian feel. A bomber jacket had so many ropes, rings, and strings dangling off it, it could’ve doubled as a portable storage unit, adding to the survivalist, almost post-apocalyptic bent of the collection. Still, the highlights were laden with a sense of fun. There was a white bomber jacket stamped with photos, including a self-portrait of the artist Ashley Bickerton, to whom the collection was dedicated, made in collaboration with artist Peter De Potter. The others were the black painted soda cans that dangled around models’ necks. The brand described them thus: “Take an empty soda can, paint it shiny black, repeat, repeat, and then, above all, behold its beauty.” Resist, reuse, recycle.