This Year in Crazypants

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

With only a few days left in 2009, it's time to look back at a year of dizzying highs and crushing lows, a year when every empty storefront held a pop-up shop and every sidewalk a sample sale line. Folks, it's the annual (three years running!) Racked Recap. This week, we'll be reliving our biggest and brightest (and saddest and darkest) moments, from the best collabs to the worst pop-up shops. Take a deep breath of the sweet, sweet nostalgia.

Maybe Lady Gaga raised the bar, or maybe everyone just got bored. Whatever the reason, 2009 introduced us to some profound feats of sartorial insanity. Join us, if you dare, for This Year in Crazypants.

5.) Thom Browne's skirt suit: When we first spied Thom Browne's skirt suit retailing for $4370, we had no idea that one day it would seem tame, bested by acts of pantsanity we could at the time not even imagine. We were so innocent back then.

4.) Andrew Harmon's leotard top: Part frilly tuxedo shirt, part bodysuit, part jock strap: We loosened the definition of "crazypants" just to accommodate this top.

3.) Y3's "Spant": We pretty much have to include a garment in this list if it forces us to create and/or embrace a smoosh to identify it. The spant, being neither skirt nor pants but some kind of terminally hip Frankenstein's monster of the two, got to number three on this list by doing just that.

2.) Siwy's peekaboo skinny jeans: Siwy struck a painful blow against the very institution of pants by making a pair so hateful we thought going full Gaga with a lone leotard would be a marked improvement.

1.) RosenMunns See-through Pants With Hands: Be honest, you knew this one was going to take first place, didn't you? RosenMunns surprised us by constructing a pair of silk organza balloon pants with terrifying ghostly hand-shaped pockets that make it look like your groin is being groped by the evil ghost of Mickey Mouse, but they shocked us by charging $392 for them.

The see-thru hand pants just appeared on our radar in December, which makes us really curious to see what will come about in 2010. Will there be more insane pants to share? Probably. Stay tuned to share the horror.
· Today in Crazypants [Racked]