Artist Textiles - Picasso to Warhol

I went on a trip to the Fashion and Textile museum in London, as just a new exhibition was launched, which will be on until May 2014. As the title tells, it was about 20th - century art in textiles and fashion from Cubism and Surrealism to Pop Art. I really liked this exhibition as it was very colourful and vibrant. The way artist work are reinterpreted into fabrics is fascinating.

' Fit for a Queen ' In 1946 the long established Lancashire cotton goods manufacturer, Horrockses, set up a fashion subsidairy, manly for the production of printed cotton frocks. The painters Alastair Morton and Graham Sutherland supplied textlie designs for the company. 

Beautiful coloured prints of Andy Warhol on dresses. The patterns are very summery, as illustrations like watermelon slices, ice cream and butterflies. I especially liked the simplicty of how the illustrations were done and how thoughtful the colours were used to not make them look overwhelming.

Prada & James Jean

In 2008 the luxury italian brand Prada worked with the Illustrator and Cartoonist James Jean to create a Spring/Summercollection. In the history of Prada it was a novelty. Over 100 pieces were made which did not only limited on garments and accesoires, but also shoes and bags.

The classic Prada bag shape combined with James Jeans beautiful fairy illustrations. The models seem to me very well chosen as well as the make up. It makes them look very magical and mysterious.

Jean was even asked to design a wall design for the from Rem Koolhaas conceptualized store in New York, as well as the backdrop for the runway of the collection in Milan.
He was also involved in a short-animation movie 'Trembled Blossom' which was done by the director James Lima and a team of specialists who created a Motion-Capture-Techique for it. A dark fairytale in which the creatures turn into Pradas products out of James Jeans aquarelles he drew for them.

Personally I think the movie is almost scary in a way because the animation is very stiff and not human. The black eyes of the protagonist increase this feeling of creepiness. I really like the aquarelles James Jean did in the movie but in my opinion it does not match Prada as a brand.

Dior x Anselm Reyle

The traditional and conservative brand Dior asked the German conceptual artist Anselm Reyle to work with them for their collection two years ago. He is an artist that uses mixed media for his artwork that ranges from sculpturing to paintings. His art is very abstract and influenced by the 1960's graphics design in the early punk movement and the acid yellow and black cover of the Sex Pistols first LP album 'Never Mind The Bollocks' .

Later, his work was still influenced by neon colours. He uses very simple techniques like adding mixed media together in stripes, which results in this picture. 'In my work, you really have a lot of interesting effects created by almost nothing ' this is a quote of Anselm about his work. Strips are something I am experimenting with in my work . 

Anselm Reyle 

Anselm Reyle

For Dior he created a camouflage pattern which was alienated because of its neon colours. Instead of hiding it is very visible and alarming. It is quite Pop Art like and very unexpected from a brand like Dior. I like the way he almost reinvented the Camouflage we all know, and turned it into his very own artwork. His colour combinations are ambitious leaving the comfort zone of many people. This Collection gave Dior a modern touch. It is also obvious that Anselm stepped away from his usual simplicity and brought the glamour effect of Dior into it.

His feeling for colour combinations is amazing, and he also uses 'ombre' techniques were some slowly change from one into another like blue to purple. I especially like how intense they are and the depth which is created by the contrasting colours.

This is one of the neon bags with a pattern designed by Reyle using bold and intense colour. The base of the mix always seems to be a metallic grey whereon the others are layered up.

Lovely wedges with a red 'themed' camouflage also from the collection.

This is my personal favourite as it is the most similar to the very first pattern picture and I very like this classical size. I also really like the picture itself as the jewellery matches the bag perfectly with out taking the attention from it as it is still the most colourful part of the picture and as we all know the human eye is attracted to colour.

The Ritva Man Art Jumper

'Wear it. Frame it. Hang it on the wall. Take it down. Wear it again. Leave it to someone in your will. Sell it for more than you bought it. For it is a very special sweater - a wearable work of art.' (Nova, November 1971).

In 1971 Mike Ross asked four leading aritist to design motifs for a first limited jumper edition 'Artist collection' -  Elizabeth Frink, David Hockney, Patrick Hughes and Allen Jone. The outcome were beautiful coloured knitted jumper, either long sleeved or short sleeved. Back then, a jumper was 40 £ equates up to 700 £ nowadays.

Artist: Allen Jones

made from Paul McCartney's "Wings" Album

All of their jumpers had a very simple shape, so they could fit every figure there was. I love the use of lots of different colours you do not see often in this combination like in the first picture. Blue and purple toned stripes framed by black and yellow look great and give a high recognition value.

The blue Wing jumper combines cold colours like blue, grey and silver. It has a very sporty look, because of the short sleeves.

This is my favourite Art Sweater out of the collection, designed by David Hockney. His colour choice is very summery as the different blue tones reminds me of blue skies and the hot sun. But it is also due the 'illustration' of the holiday house with a palm in the centre of the jumper. He took his insperation for this garment from the warm Califorina, where he lived on and off over 30 years.

In 1973, Ian McShane wore The Ritva Man jumper in the movie 'The Last Of Sheila', which perfectly fitted in the scene of the port city he was wearing it.

Rob Pruitt x Jimmy Choo

2012, another special work was created by Rob Pruitt and Jimmy Choo.
Rob Priutt is a contemporary pop artist, who is known for his use of bright and back and white colour. His most popular work is a seven foot tall crome-finished statue of Andy Warhol, which is situated on New Yorks Union square west.
The collaboration with Jimmy Choo resulted in a collection of shoes, bags, scarves and other accessoires, featuring graphical motifs, glitter zerba stripes, leopard print, lace and snakeskin.

These are two pictures of the advertising shoot. The backround looks like Pop Art already as the bright colours of the shoes and purses alomst look fake and copied into the photo. I like how the black and stripes make the colours stand out. The shoes themself have an ombre effect changing from pink into white and blue. 

Some pieces out of the collection: Loafers, flip flops, heels and accessiores like keyrings a purse and a scarve. The majority is decorated with the two cartoonish pandas. As contrast is an important part they look like an Angel and Devil.

The two bags are the highlight with only a limited number of 14 pieces worldwide and a price of £9600. 11,000 hand-apllied crystals are one each of the angels and devils. 

Scott Campbell & Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton worked with the american Tattoo artist Scott Campbell for the Spring/Summer Collection in 2011. The main idea was to use tattoo images onto bags and scarves. Very detailed and fine lines but expressive and an eyecatcher. For more impact, he also designed the tattoos the models were wearing on the runway of the show.
I really like that he is almost only using curved lines in his designs.It is very different to what I have seen before and brings a dark side into the traditional Louis Vuitton label. This is a very understated collaboration for Louis Vuttion compared to his usual collections.

The horse motive on the bags is very much inspired by chinese dragon drawings, which are also often found in tattoo art which relates back to his actual work. It is also visible on the scarve designs, they are very detailed fantasy animals and flowers, also the classic Louis Vuitton pattern is changed to a more intensive and unique look.

These are two samples of the scarves that were produced from this collection and it just shows how much Campell reinvented the typical pattern we all know. By the colours and illustrations used there is so much more excitement and coolness about them I really like.

Mondrian

The dutch artist Mondrian inspired  YSL in 1965 to do a collection of shift dresses in wool and jersey, with his simple, grid like paintings. They were set into blocks with only three colours in use: Yellow, Blue and Red with a white divident and horizontal and vertical black lines.

(One of Mondrians Paintings)

(Yves Saint Laurents dress 1965)

(Models in different designs of YSL collection)

I like how YSL picked up the concept of simplicity and chose to do shift dresses, as they have a very plain shape and almost fit every figure. This must have been an additional factor why the collection was that popular as every women could wear it. The design was very futuristic as it was bold and easy, but at the same time beautiful. It was something that hasnt been there before so people were attrackted to it quickly.

Not only YLS was inspired by Mondrians use of the primary colours and his simple grids, other fashion designer adopted his concept too. Bags, Shoes and even Swimwear was inspired by his paintings

Nike's Mondrian inspired 'SB Dunk lows'

A Kara Ross clutch, made out of crocodile leather  worth 1,675 pound

An amazing swimmwear collection of Sarah Schonfeld, an australian designer. She inverted Mondrian's black and white arrangments, which make it look more intense.