Art by GQ Deputy Editor Michael Hainey, a first solo show, at Thom Browne store

Much like the fashion industry– exploited on reality television and desperate to keep its cool– pairing up with the art world every other night to give it more cred, Thom Browne –the financially struggling designer who created the above ankle pant for men — has too crawled into the art loft. But he hit obviously, directly, and intimately by giving GQ Deputy Editor Michael Hainey his first solo show– Less Human, More Being — this week at Browne’s Tribeca store.

The review on the GQ website is filled with platitudes, calling the show “a beautifully composed, emotionally resonant from the gut expression of images that haunt our inner lives.” “I see these as excavations. It’s digging down inside of me, trying to unearth.” says Hainey, of his twenty-seven works hanging between tweedy jackets and above those racks of short pants. Yeah, man, whatever. Bullocks! Browne hopes you’ll plug his clothes in GQ so he does not have to close shop in these hard economic times. (To note, I believe a gentleman would rather buy a good pair of jeans than trendy short pants in a money crisis.) And the GQ reviewer, well you’re technically paying him, so he’s also kissing arse.

The expo, up at the store through end of the month, proves laughable in an art school picking redundant subjects kind of way: scrawled paintings of horses, faceless women, and crows… so many damn crows! To quote The Raven: “NEVERMORE!”

Of course, I prefer a guy in a hot pair of Hudson jeans any day, but for those dudes in the market for short pants and a side of arty, check out Less Human, More Being at Thom Browne at 100 Hudson and Franklin Street, through November 30th.

An actual painting from the show… also the title of the exhibit