NEW YORK, Sep 18, 2002/ FWD/ --- As with many an Imitation of Christ show, at this one familiarity was kept to a minimum and the bizarrely creative took a lead role.

The "Retrospective," held in the enormous, all-white Maurice Villency uptown furniture store, featured art videos and past IOC show footage, receptacles filled with live butterflies and grass, and the Gang Gang dancers in ballet shoes funking out to the abrasive electronic sound of Black Dice.

And that was downstairs.

Upstairs models, and their friends and boyfriends, slouched against the windows and walls, causing a flashing frenzy from the press inside and out.

The collection itself -- slouchy jerseys worn off the shoulder, slumpy coats paired with tiny shorts and stilettos -- were both cool and comfortable and contrasted harshly with the models' scraped-back hair, red lips and long, long legs in black Christian Louboutin stilettos.

Similarly, the "live sculptures" vacuuming the carpet with Dyson vacuum cleaners --wearing panties, heels and red lipstick -- looked like they'd walked straight from Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video.

A couple of the girls even became vacuum dominatrixes, whipping and tying each other with the vacuum's electrical cord.

IOC founder Tara Subkoff milled around both floors in a painted short dress, observing the cultural experience/performance IOC once again pulled together.

The goodie bag included an IOC collection test shot and a Maurice Villency gift card for $100 -- very kind, but basically only the tax on a table leg at the swanky contemporary furniture shop.

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ