Forget the walls: Put art right on your clothes

Tag : artwork & paintings

You can wear something hand-painted by a real artist, or somethingmade to appear that way. You can wear leather handbags and shoesimprinted with Old Master images and paintings by contemporaryartists. You can buy vintage leather handbags hand-painted in thestyle of famous painters by young artists who sell their wares viathe Internet. Or you can wear fashion inspired by the work offamous artists such as Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
"Fashion inspired by art has been around for more than 100 years,"says fashion historian Valerie Steele, director of The Museum atthe Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. "The traditionalway of doing it, in the 19th century, someone like (CharlesFrederick) Worth would design dresses inspired by dresses inpaintings by artists like Titian."
Later, Yves St. Laurent turned a 1960s mod sheath dress into awalking billboard for the color-block art of Mondrian (the originalis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection), which in turninspired Diane von Furstenberg's Mondrian sheath dress, popularlast fall. Now von Furstenberg is preparing to launch a line ofAndy Warhol-inspired clothes in November.
"Hand-painting on clothing also has a long, long history, and atits best, it's evocative, but it can easily turn into kitsch,"Steele says.
Much of the time, customers for this kind of fashion are seekingsomething no one else has.
"People are looking for something that is unique," says Omahaartist Nikki Kinsey, 31, owner of SolChicks.com, who hand-paintsjeans sent in by clients all over the country. "There's just a lotof the same in the fashion industry, and people like to stand out alittle more."
Anna Graham, an artist in Los Angeles, prowls flea markets andgarage sales for vintage or new handbags, which she paints in thestyle of artists such as Monet or Matisse. She sells them on eBayand on her website, AnagramFineArt.com
"The way these economic times are, people want to buy somethingunique if they're going to spend money," she says. "They want afunctional piece of art — they like to say it's handmade andone of a kind."