When Designers and Artists Collide

As you may or may not know, I focused my college studies on visual arts and art history. Now that I work for a fashion company, nothing excites me more than when fashion and art merge (which is often). So, you can imagine my enthusiasm when, just this week, TWO designer brands launched capsule collections in collaboration with contemporary artists!

Naturally, I had to share the news with the RLS readership. What do you think of these collaborations? Is there an artist/designer collaboration you hope to see? Tell us on Facebook!

Happy Shopping!

p.s. If you’re interested in seeing my own artwork, check out my Instagram account! (Okay, my shameless plug is over, return to reading!)

Masters LV x Jeff Koons

Louis Vuitton and contemporary artist Jeff Koons teamed up in April to create a collection of handbags inspired by Koons’s series “Gazing Ball Paintings,” his own reproductions of famous works of art: “In choosing works which themselves consciously referenced paintings of the past, Koons’s ‘Gazing Ball’ series of paintings placed the artist within a chain of influence and inspiration that runs through the history of Western art” (read the rest of this article here). Interesting, right?

The original collection featured Koons’s work inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Vincent van Gogh, and Titian (the latter is no longer available). On October 12, the collection added five more paintings to the collection after Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, François Boucher, and J.M.W. Turner.

Each painting is printed onto multiple purse styles, and printed on the insides are biographies and pictures of the original artists with Koons’s signature. The prices for each purse are not listed on the website; instead, there’s a button suggesting you “Call for Inquiry.” So, if you’re interested in buying yourself one of these amazing bags, you’ll have to find out the price for yourself! But knowing Louis Vuitton, they won’t be cheap…

Masters LV x Koons Speedy 30 in Monet

Masters LV x Koons Montaigne MM in Manet

Masters LV x Koons NéoNé0 in Gauguin

Masters LV x Koons Neverfull MM in Boucher

Masters LV x Koons Pochette Metis in Turner

Masters LV x Koons Chain Bag in da Vinci

Masters LV x Koons Palm Springs in Rubens

Masters LV x Koons Clutch in Fragonard

Masters LV x Koons Keepall 50 in Van Gogh

Gucci x Unskilled Worker

Just when you thought Gucci couldn’t get any quirkier, they teamed up with “Unskilled Worker” for the ultimate quirky capsule collection! U.K. artist Helen Downie, known as Unskilled Worker, acquired a large following on Instagram where she shares her eccentric paintings of wide-eyed, large-headed figures. The subjects’ weird, blank stares, paired with fantastical clothing and backgrounds, make these paintings both alluring and a bit creepy…

Unskilled Worker’s involvement in the fashion industry precedes this collection. In 2014, she created a drawings inspired by Alexander McQueen that showed at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in 2015, Gucci tapped Downie to make a collection of paintings for the Minsheng Art Museum (read more about Unskilled Worker here). Now, Downie’s work has made it onto Gucci products, and the result is one wild ride!