Helmut Lang SS04 Vintage Handcuff Necklace

The handcuff Helmut Lang introduced for Spring Summer 2004, strung here as a pendant on a black leather cord rather than worn at the wrist. The metal ring keeps the working parts of the reference, the ratcheted edge and the recessed catch, at a scale that reads as jewellery. Lang's accessories from this season moved into museum collections quickly: the Metropolitan Museum took the sterling silver bracelet for its Costume Institute.