Ensemble

President Eisenhower's famous idiom "the military-industrial complex" is the starting point of this Gaultier outfit. Olive-green and cargo pants suggest the military or paramilitary. But the military rigor is impugned by indefatigable graffiti. Graffiti--that paradigm for art historian Kirk Varnedoe of high art informed by low art--defaces the military appearance. A medium of defilement and of language--often slightly vulgar in this instance--sheathes the facade of the proper soldier. Given Gaultier's many ingenious permutations of sailors, his cognate transfiguration of the army man is hardly surprising.