Feature: Imitation Of Christ


When people think of fashion shows, they obviously think of models walking up and down a catwalk. Imitation Of Christ are designers for whom this is not the case.

The brainchild of Matthew Darnhave & Tara Subkoff, with actress Chloe Sevigny acting as creative director, Sophie has modelled for IOC on three occasions. Yet none of the shows were conventional catwalk shows, but were regarded to be more like 'performance art'.

For the Spring 2002 show, the models and journalists swapped places - Sophie and Co sat where the journalists and guests would normally be at the sides of the catwalk runway, and the journalists had to file past the models, rather than vice versa.

For the Fall 2002, the show was held at Sotheby's and the show was presented as if it was a genuine auction. A rotating stage displayed several models at a time who stood motionless whilst a description of the outfits was read out over the loudspeaker, before the stage turned to reveal the next set of models. The exception was the final designs, where the models appeared on the side of the room. Each guest was also given an Auction House style book listing each of the garments.

For the Spring 2003 show, the show was split into two - topless models pushing vacuum cleaners appeared on one floor, Sophie and the rest appearing on another. Chaos subsequently ensued, and such was the set up of the show, that photographs of some of the models were impossible to obtain. Sophie pictures from this event are very few and far between.

It remains to be seen if Sophie will model for IOC again - she did no catwalk shows for the New York autumn/winter 2003 collections, having reduced her catwalk work since 2002 to spend more time on acting and writing.