OMG Theyskens is so beautiful and so wierd. His sensibilities infuse that which is sensible always with that which is not, and for that there will always be fascination. His clothes and the images related validate the act of reaching. Neither overly difficult or overly simple to the eye, one finds it so easy to follow his lines, but like a magnificent thrash metal guitar solo lead, both achingly original yet fraught with classicism, the thing actually disappears under the intense scrutiny, only to reappear at the precise moment between confusion loss and satisfaction gain. O how I love Olivier's work, and to just know that he allows the rough edges of life, differance, gendricity, and above all, the stillness of perfection that is the living's dream of death, actual PLAY in his life and his work... well that just makes my day!!

Olivier Theyskens is to Fashion what Friedrich Nietszche is to Thought. Both have the temerity to challenge the right of evil to exist. In Nietszche's case the evil is stupidity, in Theyskens' it is ugliness. What I think he means by "Fashion Is My Religion" is that to not be proactive in making the world a more gracefu...l, beautiful, and stylish place to exist one is actually aiding and abetting the cause of Those who would not consider the Other's regard to be an issue of spiritual hygiene. Beauty is sanity and sanitary, in the sense that the forces of disorganized ugliness, a virulent form of useless chaos, can invade the otherwise harmonious precincts of attraction and pleasure which visual excellence can attain to. By reifying what is pretty one simultaneously protects it, which is in direct contrast to religious sensibilities which may devalue, hide, and therefore 'lose' the opportunity which, for instance, a beautiful woman's body presents in Nature. Taking as example and cue the beautiful experiments of natural evolution: plumage, pelage, pattern or pout the man allows that which is beautiful in Nature to 'sing' again and again in his masterful work. With no apologies, and no vulgarity or irony. I admire his functional artistry because it approximates the actual Function of what spirituality, religion, or any other well established obsessions wish to incorporate but never can, fully: the Function of the Beautiful seeking that which will sustain itself: the Regard. Unfortunately, many established paths ask the beholder to shut his eye and still testify to the truth of the experience, but how can, for instance, one shut one's eye to Eroticism and still claim progress upon any divine path, when Eroticism clearly pertains to Transcendence, and therefore the divine, and one knows this experientially, first hand. Theyskens, tho, asks instead for the eye to render the beautiful with as much power and force which it may be capable of. This is apparent in his exquisite handiwork, which showcases both the natural beauty of his subjects and precise adornments which enhance this beauty. Therefore it is not only politically charged endeavors, in the sense that his clothes champion the right of both male and females to enrich themselves by way of this protective adornment, but Spiritually charged endeavor, for the clothes allow for and create a space where a constant meditation upon the human limits of grace... grace in art, grace in life... are happily and joyously exceeded. Setting the new, and current, state-of-the-art. And that is what I believe Spirit to be: the continuing record of those human breakthroughs, which we take great pains to preserve and to share, to challenge and to eventually rise above!