Issue #2: Fashion and Art Collectives

Published January 2007

The second issue of Fashion Projects covers fashion and art collectives, as well as collaborative projects between artists and fashion designers. It’s meant as a reminder of the inherently collaborative nature of fashion which is often forgotten as, particularly at the higher ends of the industry, so much rides on the “individual” designer.

Of course, it’s hard to resist the temptation of trumpeting “the individual,” and we couldn’t help but give in to such a temptation when the individuals in question turned out to be so interesting and down to earth—as is the case with Cat Chow and Susan Cianciolo, who skillfully combine and confound the categories of art, craft and fashion. Both artists forge collaborations in their music careers: Each artist formed a band, which relies on fashion and costumes as an integral ingredient. Continuing on this theme, the British artist Simon Periton describes his collaborations with a number of fashion designers from Raf Simons to Junya Watanabe to the milliner Philip Treacy. Meanwhile, the New York–based designer Despina Papadopoulos(founding member of the design collective Studio 5050) tells of her electronic garments and her collaborations with the fashion design collective As Four.

Examining the inherent political dimension of collaboration and collectives, Lidia Ravviso looks at the use of clothes by European protest movements from the now defunct Tute Bianche to the more recent “pink” movements. It is with these movements that the Situationist-inspired Italian collective Serpica Naro aligns itself, developing an elaborate identity for a fake designer with non-existent press offices and made-up fashion spreads. In fact, Serpica Naro’s spoof was so successful that the imaginary designer gained entrance to the official Milanese fashion calendar, surprising the audience with ironic and politically charged garments tailored to the needs of disenfranchised laborers.

Elsewhere in the issue are interviews with a number of art and fashion collaboratives of various sizes and scopes, from the well-known British website Show Studio to the Austrian fashion organizations Unit F (responsible for instituting and organizing Austrian fashion week) to Elsewhere, an art collaborative housed in a century-old thrift store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Also of a collaborative nature is the performance piece organized for this issue by Flâneuse, which revives “the ghetto blaster” via the unlikely transformation of a 1970s Fendi bag to provocative and ironic effects.

Francesca Granata

Color Me Urban

Two limited-edition hoodies from Kidrobot. Sold out, of course. Left: Spraypaint camouflage by Nico Berry. Right: A twisted version of the Louis Vuitton logo pattern by Tilt.

Today the New York Times ran an article by Ruth La Ferla on the global trend of urban streetwear. This topic is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, not in the least because I actually WEAR some of what is considered urban clothing. The signifiers of streetwear - bright colors, camouflage, hoodies, puffy sneakers, baggy jeans, tracksuits, jewelry - have direct roots in the 1980s and early 1990s. And, significantly, one only has to think of Stephen Sprouse's reinterpretation of Andy Warhol's acid-color prints to realize that the art scene back then was a significant contributor to underground fashion.

This relationship between urban fashion and art is especially evident today, especially in the utilization of clothing as a blank canvas on which artists (many of them practicing street art) can create designs. In fact, this renewal in urban fashion is really just a part of a larger urban culture movement which includes vinyl toys, accessories, jewelry, music, books and graffiti. While there is still an anti-fashion element to today's urban culture, it has become such a lucrative field (think of A Bathing Ape's success) that important fashion players like Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Visionaire are angling for a slice of the action alongside companies like Stussy, Triple 5 Soul, Maharishi, and Ice Cream (Pharrell William's label). While one might wonder about mainstream fashion's credibility in the urban scene, it is a surprisingly symbiotic affair with limited-edition collaborations and cheeky reinterpretations of logos.

An excellent example of this interplay between fashion and anti-fashion is evident in Kidrobot's story. Kidrobot is actually a newcomer to the urban fashion scene, only recently launching an amazingly successful apparel line. Kidrobot's main expertise is in the creation of limited-edition toys decorated by the hippest underground artists. Word has it that the curator of a large art museum in Manhattan is an avid collector of toys from Kidrobot, and they were recently included in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's Triennial as part of the best design around today. I spoke to my good friend and the manager of the Kidrobot store in Soho, James May, about Kidrobot's success. Read what he has to say about this exploding movement after the jump.

Why did Kidrobot start producing a clothing line?

It was a natural progression. It started first with asking artists to decorate sneakers and then logically moved to apparel. We've actually always done t-shirts. Whether its toys, a sweatshirt or sneakers, they are all blank canvases for artists. Like other companies, many of our clothing designers are actually street artists. Our in-house designer is Maze.

What fashion designers has Kidrobot collaborated with?

Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Heatherette, Dries Van Noten, Duckie Brown, Nike... The Visionaire collaboration included Karl Lagerfeld, Helmut Lang, Versace, Prada, Comme des Garçons, Viktor and Rolf, Hedi Slimane and Alexander McQueen.

Did Kidrobot approach them, or the other way around?

Both. The collaborations started about two years ago, with the end result being limited edition toys (numbering anywhere from 100 to 500) wearing designer clothing. We are being approached now by musicians, stylists and other fashion designers.

How has Kidrobot's apparel line been received?

Since almost all products are produced in limited quantities (many have a run of 228), they all almost immediately sell out.

Who is the average Kidrobot customer?

There is no such thing. Our customers are of any age, color, male and female. Anyone can wear Kidrobot clothes or collect our toys.

Do you agree that the reason streetwear is so colorful is due to the influence of graffiti and street art?

Definitely.

Kidrobot can be found online at kidrobot.com or visit one of their retail stores in NYC, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Sarah Scaturro

Tanya Marcuse's Undergarments and Armor

Tanya Marcuse, Corset with Silk Ribbon 1880s (from the collection of the Museum at FIT)

Don’t miss the exhibit Love & War: The Weaponized Woman, which will close this Saturday. Of particular notice are the photographs of Tanya Marcuse, which have been recently published in a beautiful clothbound book by Nazraeli Press with an introduction by Valerie Steele. Marcuse received a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph undergarments and armor in a number of museums and archives in the U.S. and England. The beautifully evocative pictures trace parallels between these seemingly polarized categories of dressing by focusing on highly structured undergarments such as bustles, corsets and cage crinolines, and on amor which mirror the bodily contour of the wearer, thus “unveiling” the inside of the body rather than shielding it. As Valerie Steele points out in the book’s introduction, Marcuse’s plates (which often capture these garments still on their museums’ forms) perfectly illustrate that “certain poetic beauty in the historical remains of the past.”

Francesca

Season of Knits

A Tom Scott Creation. Photography by Stephen Rose, photo taken from www.refinery29.com

It is definitely the season for knits. We've already mentioned Sandra Backlund, but there is another young knitwear designer whose attention-grabbing creations are experimental yet wearable: Tom Scott. The website Refinery29 has this excellent profile on Scott. You can also see his designs (including a sweater woven with steel and a t-shirt with off-set arms) featured in the upcoming Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's Triennial exhibition opening this Friday.

While Scott's pieces are definitively modern and even futuristic, there is another, more historical, reason to celebrate knits this season. Perhaps you remember reading awhile ago that a motherload of deadstock vintage knits was found in the Ohio Knitting Mills factory in Cleveland, OH. Well, the knits have come to New York and you can buy them at the new Ohio Knitting Mills store in Boerum Hills. Stephen Tatar, the man responsible for bringing these rare pieces to NYC was recently interviewed by Paper Magazine. Although he admits that the stock won't run out anytime soon, he stresses that it will eventually happen!

Sarah

La Superette 2006

Don’t forget to check out La Superette’s annual holiday event and art sale this Saturday December 9 from 12:00 to 10:00 pm. Paired with a “Holiday Hackshop,” it will be hosted by Eyebeam (540 west 21st). Plenty of performances, a puppet show and other entertaining events are scheduled!