Again in highschool, when my love for trend was blossoming, I’d spend hours on Type.com educating myself on the newest runways and designers. I studied all of this prefer it was an essential faculty project—typically skipping my precise homework. My hometown of Nipissing, Canada, is hardly a trend capital, so I took nice curiosity in what was taking place on the scene over in Europe. The garments in London, Milan, and Paris all appeared so glamorous and splendid.

Being a teen within the 2000s, in the course of the time of indie sleaze, MySpace, and Scene youngsters, I used to be notably obsessed with something studded or emblazoned with skulls. As such, it didn’t take me lengthy to find the work of Lucien Pellat-Finet. The French designer, who died this week at 78, was identified for his (very costly) cashmere cranium sweaters, which got here in a rainbow of colours. I used to be immediately obsessed. 

Pellat-Finet began his profession in trend as a mannequin after being found by designer Pierre Cardin. He based his label in 1994, nevertheless it actually took off in the course of the Y2K model period. At a time when edgy Alexander McQueen cranium scarves and bedazzled Ed Hardy graphic tees had been trending, Pellat-Finet’s luxurious cranium knits stood out from the pack. Not solely had been his items extraordinarily of the second, they had been additionally superb high quality. They had been extraordinarily mushy, and so they had been made with double-ply yarn and an intarsia method, the place knitters from Scotland would sew particular person panels after which ensemble every sweater by hand.

Pellat-Finet’s sweaters might value upwards of $2,000—a staggering quantity again then (and nonetheless now). However they warranted the worth tag: The designer solely made a pair thousand types a yr. They had been an actual standing merchandise, and really a lot exterior the funds of a 16-year-old like myself. However that simply made me covet them extra. In actual fact, I needed one so dangerous that, on a trip to New York Metropolis with my complete household, I dragged my dad and mom and my sister to the now shuttered boutique Jeffrey simply so I might contact one of many sweaters and take a look at it on. (Regardless of hinting at how a lot I beloved it, my dad and mom didn’t, in truth, shell out two grand for the knit. “That’s loopy,” my mother stated. She didn’t get it.)