Clemens en August in November

Long story short: "For the last three years, Alexander Brenninkmeijer, the designer of the German label Clemens en August, has sold his collections only in museums and art galleries around the world, usually for no more than three days at a time."

And starting next Tuesday, November 4, he'll be at the Chelsea Art Museum in Manhattan, through Thursday, November 6.

Fair warning.

Here's Eric Wilson's October 30, 2008 New York Times story about the pop-up store to-the-max designer and his wares, examples of which appear in the photo up top.

Price Tags That Are Works of Art

The price tag on a men’s cotton suit from Clemens en August, a German label that is difficult to come by, reads $633. It also notes that the suit hypothetically would have cost $1,583 if you were buying it at a store like Barneys New York. But Barneys doesn’t carry the line, nor does any other luxury store.

For the last three years, Alexander Brenninkmeijer, the designer of Clemens en August, has sold his collections only in museums and art galleries around the world, usually for no more than three days at a time. Last week, he was in Tokyo at the Zel Gallery. Next week, starting Tuesday, he will be at the Chelsea Art Museum in Manhattan. There’s no middleman, so Mr. Brenninkmeijer charges wholesale.

“I thought it would be a good idea to go on tour so we would be able to cut out that high retail margin,” he said.

Before starting the label, Mr. Brenninkmeijer worked with the designer Kostas Murkudis, who sold his collections at Harvey Nichols and Bergdorf Goodman. Mr. Brenninkmeijer said that prices were marked up so much it was hard to sell them.

“The problem was, for young contemporary designers, there’s hardly any chance to become big independently,” he said. “One of the last designers to have that was Helmut Lang, but even he was taken over by Prada.” (That didn’t exactly work out, either.)

Mr. Brenninkmeijer’s collection was called Clemens en August after the founding brothers of C&A, his family’s fashion business in the Netherlands, but it operates independently and has a more austere luxury look, with slim tuxedo suits or techno fabric jackets for women, and an emerald velvet suit or shiny athletic pants for men. A women’s silk blouse costs $365, and a jersey dress with a cotton back is $255.

He wanted to open a store, but no one would take a risk of leasing to a label with no sales. So he approached a few galleries and was accepted, usually for a small donation, at Kunst-Werke Berlin, MAK in Vienna and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The events — a schedule is at clemensenaugust.com — have caught on partly for the pricing concept, and because the limited availability makes the designs seem more exclusive: This season, he expects to sell about 4,000 pieces.