There’s a naked man hanging around my neck

The other day, my friend/colleague Cheryl told me that MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing, not the makeup store) in Hayes Valley was having an uber-sale. Seeing as though I easily succumb to peer pressure, we went after work.

Now MAC isn’t your normal San Francisco store. It is the ultimate destination for label whores like myself. It’s kind of like a Barneys but a lot less corporate and a lot more counterculture. It where all the cool kids go to spend their rent money.

Anyways, they are an sartorially avant-gasmic goldmine when it comes to labels – particularly designers who rolled with the Antwerp Six: Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela and, of course, Walter Van Beirendonck. In fact, they are one of two stores in the nation that carry Walter’s conceptual garb that gleefully violates runway.

His items are brilliant and delightfully offensive. Seeing his pieces gets me excited and actually makes me enjoy fashion rather than criticize it. It’s – and I don’t know if this is appropriate – euphoric and child-like. We’ve been working on a story for him in our magazine, so I have been intrigued about his work.

The store had a gaggle of items on sale from his Fall 2009 Glow collection. So while Cheryl ravaged the racks of Margiela, I violated the racks of Beirendonck and ended up getting this:

Yes, that’s a naked little man (or woman, depending on how you look at it) on the scarf. It epitomizes Walter’s playfully exhibitionist aesthetic – but that’s not his entire aesthetic. His style is provocatively sci-fi and very irreverent. In a nutshell, he has an anti-fashion appeal.

Anyways, people don’t really notice it until you point it out – which is what I did all day. I walked around my office (and to random people on the street) saying, “LOOK! MY SCARF HAS A PENIS!”.

Thus far, it is my best purchase from a winter sale.