Michael Cepress creates garments that are grand and eccentric, drawing inspiration from the "moments of history when people really decorated themselves." He collects fringed vests used in Odd Fellows ceremonies, for instance. They're made of "banged-up old velvet," and those especially age-worn swell out, enabling one to "see the shape of the body built into it" over the years.

Incorporating other clothing artifacts, Michael's sculptural neckwear line RRRIPP!!! Paper Fashion has forms "radiating bands of information around the face and head." Layers are stitched on, or carefully folded and stacked then glued together, or tacked with antiquated cuff links. In the designs, Michael used the actual shirtfronts and collars made of white paper worn during the turn of the century. Men once went apeshit for them: Segmented apparel was trending, and these accessories were cheap and disposable when everyone was broke but wanting to look nice and doing laundry was a hopeless obstacle. The high collars weren't necessarily uncomfortable, though "they put you in a certain posture," Michael says, and everyone looked all hot and stodgy just the same.

Also reappropriated in RRRIPP!!!: a '60s paper dress, which was fun and functional and enormously popular for a time. They came embedded with chemicals so as to withstand a couple washings, and one could alter her look—to sleeveless, perhaps, or shorten the hem, or make separates—quickly, using scissors. (Andy Warhol just loved these dresses. He once painted one with ketchup while it was on some fabulously beautiful model.)

Michael's past work is crammed with variations and meticulous details. Some of the dress shirts from the Modern Gentleman line have multiple collars, spiraling out from a point and swiveling down, with ruching packed into the spaces between. The effect is organic, with clumpy swirls resembling the underparts of a jellyfish. In other shirts, Michael dyed the fabric to enhance the model's skin color and mapped the body's structure with stitching—the lines trace the rib cage, or pectoral muscles, before artfully curling away.

Inspired by accordions and origami and "disks of cloth" that can unexpectedly "fold [open] into an entire garment," his Cocoon forms are droopy and angular at once, some with intricate shapes resembling egg cartons. (To bring balance, wearers encased in garments this steeply futuristic ought to be disheveled and ordinary, maybe suffering from heartburn.) And Michael's also designed skirts for men—ankle length, and cut like pants to keep the fit lean. Currently, he's selling a collection of fancy bow ties ($68 each), available with cuff links (starting at $98), at the SAM gift shop.

Attention, makers of fashion and workers of garmentry: Tell me what you're doing at marti@thestranger.com.