Long gone are the days of the wizard with needle behind the atelier curtain. If fashion designers are going to be exalted now as rock superstars, then why wouldn't they enjoy that fundamentally validating badge of any stage idol?

No, not a record contract. God knows, that doesn't bring in the bucks these days. What does bring glory and greenbacks is the unpretentiously designed, potentially collectible, intentionally overpriced, rock T-shirt.
Besides, the very essence of all that's glam in rock is fashion, so commemorating its gods and that most prosaic of garments is no-brainer genius. Swedish provocateurs Johan Sandberg and Henrik Timonen considered this a few years back when they screenprinted the mugs of Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent on T-shirts in a kind of battle-of-the-bands pairing.
The duo return with an encore of their cheeky concept at the new Brachfeld Gallery in Paris through Feb. 28. This time the 14-style line-up brandishes Miuccia Prada, Alaia, Martin Margiela, Jean-Paul Gautier, Haider Ackermann, Sonia Rykiel, YSL's Stefano Pilati, Christopher Kane, Marc Jacobs, Phoebe Philo, Viktor & Rolf, Lanvin's Alber Elbaz,Rick Owens and Rodarte.
The shirts were cleverly displayed with ripped strips of black gaffer tape onto the wall. And unlike concert T-shirts, the total 50 euro price tag on these facsimiles are going to benefit Doctors without Borders, noted Ed Brachfeld, the New York expat who opened the gallery this summer and encouraged the boys to reprise the concept.
"We don't need to make anything from doing this, we don't need it as much as they do, especially after the disaster in Haiti," Henrik told me.
The pair pay the bills as Sandberg&Timonen, art directing and conceiving graphics for advertising, magazines, record covers and other commercial projects. While this batch of T-shirts is limited to the gallery run, you might be able to phone to order by phone, although, oddly, they didn't do credit cards the night of the opening. The three of us discussed bring it to an L.A. gallery, so stay tuned...
In many ways, Henrik noted, the idol worship among fans of fashion and rock is the same: daring to sneak into the back stage of concerts or the front of house at fashion shows; the T-shirt as talisman, whether it's a branded undershirt or concert T-shirt; the youthful escapism of fashion and rock n' roll.
For those of us at the Feb. 4 opening party, it was definitely a lighters-up toast to those loves of our life. There with L.A. expats Raquel Elfassi (whose Resource agency reps the likes of directors RJ Cutler, Sofia Coppola and Zoe Cassavetes) and Christopher Bagley (W Paris bureau chief whom I know from my Fairchild days when he was in the neighboring cubicle), we were not the only ones making a game of matching the inspiration behind many of the T-shirts, as in the resemblance between the Rodarte sisters design and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody, and V&R to Van Halen.
"It's just as telling who is not on the wall as who is," Henrik pointed out. "We asked all the important designers we loved, but not all of them wanted to participate. I'm sure you can guess who they are," he teased. Is it really fathomable that the Kaiser, never one to shy away from the media spotlight, would say no?

I arrived intent on leaving with Rick's T-shirt, which was on the invitation and so obviously fitting given the former L.A. designer should've been a punk rock star if fashion hadn't piqued his attentions instead. But they were all so good, especially that Alber shirt, which, at least in my warped rock fan mind, revealed the genius behind Lanvin as the nerd at the synthesizer keyboard, the brilliant melody-making composer in the band, yet not fitting the Johnny Bravo jacket to make it to front of stage.
Sounds about right.