Pope explained what was behind the page:

I wanted to try applying the lessons learned from the Wednesday Comics experience to a different subject, here finding a source which would be difficult to illustrate as a page of comics, given that there is very little suggested action. I find that with the format of Wednesday Comics (which is really the traditional Sunday Comics page), one must condense the plot and action to the briefest yet most vivd bursts of information available— there is a lot of space on the page for the illustrations to really overwhelm the reader/viewer, but there isn't a lot of space for story development in the sense of how we'd develop a plot or work up dialogue for a typical comic book page. In a comic book, one page may be well drawn or well written, but it is still just a single facet of a larger whole. One page can be preceded or followed by another, but no one page carries the entire weight of the sustained narrative. The Wednesday Comics single page format forces the artist to create a story unit which may well be part of a larger storyline, however it still must be able to stand alone.

A one-off page (with colors by Lovern Kindzierski, who colored the last half of Pope's Wednesday Comics strip), we can't help but wish that a full-scale Dune adaptation makes an appearance on Pope's to-do list at some point in the future.

M'Uad Dib [PulpHope]

The line was announced back in March, with DKNY Jeans president Kevin Monogue enthusing about the collaboration in perfect PR speak:

Working with an exciting artist like Paul on something so unique to the market keeps DKNY Jeans connected to our consumer's interests and also allows us to offer him innovative products and ideas. Identifying two mediums that have similar aesthetics and developing ways to meld them is part of the DNA of the DKNY Jeans brand. We are really excited about 2089.

Pope himself was looking further that just selling some clothes in his aims:

I see this line as a way of stealing Pop back from Warhol. We've seen comics endlessly pillaged in the high art world and adapted to film, for better or worse. We've seen comics images quoted in fashion and copied in street art. Comics has a cultural currency all its own. But this is maybe the first time an actual cartoonist has been given the chance to launch his own brand, to build it from concept on up, to do it within the bounds of an established label such as DKNY Jeans.

Pope's involvement went further than just designing the clothes themselves - he also designed individual window displays for Asian markets.
Between this and James Jean's work for Prada, comic book artist involvement may be the new thing for fashion houses. When Chris Ware starts doing work for Target, though, I'm declaring the fad over.

[Paul Pope's DKNY NYC 2089]