Art using the collection

During ArtBasel Miami, one garment was bought at Gap, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Guess, American Apparel, Superdry and two other stores  and altered using the stamps

If someone found all 8 of them, they spelled out the word A-R-T-B-A-S-E-L

If someone found all 8 of them, they spelled out the word A-R-T-B-A-S-E-L

The artist then placed them back in the stores.

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A performance artist decided to question the difference between “cost’ and “value”.

The way they decided to do this was to buy a $60 white men’s shirt from Zara….

…and buy a very similar shirt from Prada costing $544, then swap the labels.

Of course, just changing the labels, doesn’t change the shirt, so the artist hid the words “Art” and “Fashion” and hand embellished the Zara shirt underneath the collar.

A note was added to each shirt which gave a link to the video below. The artist walked back into Prada and Zara and secretly put each garment back on the store shelves.

One customer presumably bought a Prada shirt in Zara for $60, another customer bought a one off piece of art in  Prada for $544. The store got to sell each shirt twice. No customer emailed to ask for a refund.

The artist never heard from anyone regarding the project but the video has been watched, so at least one of the notes must have been found.

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The collection contains tens of thousands of vintage shipper’s ticket designs, still in their original printer packaging. For several years, an artist has been using the tickets as what street art refers to as “wheatpaste”, pasting them up in places as far afield as New York, Texas and Mexico City. Some are just simply stuck with no changes, others have messages applied and in a few instances, large installations have been created.

If you would like to see more, please click and follow @WheatpasteWoman  on instagram

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A very important part of owning a collection such as this, is that it continues to be used in the way it was intended. Obviously I am not a fabric merchant but, like a classic ferrari that is kept in an air conditioned storage facility, to stop using the stamps would be a shame.
I have therefore had long standing collaborations with those who appreciate and want to incorporate the art in their work. This has ranged from political art at Zuccoti Park, through to celebratory art for Earth Wind & Fire and performance pieces during ArtBasel.
The only rule I have is that there is no charge for the art created.
In that vein, I have for the last few months, had a Sunday Art Open Day where anyone can come and enjoy using the stamps to create whatever they want.

No judgements.

Below are a few examples from all ages of artist…

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After a chance encounter with Philip Bailey, the artist was asked to produce 35 original pieces for Earth Wind & Fire’s 35th anniversary.

As always, the artist created the art for free and produced the varied interpretations of each year and each song in only two days.

The pieces were given out by the band to people who had played a big part in their career, from fans to musicians.

click here or the images below to see all the designs

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The artist bought some 75% sale item sweaters from Old Navy, printed on them and put them back on the shelves in a NY Old Navy Store today. Here are the designs. I have no idea what the staff or customers’ reaction to them is.

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The anonymous artist who has been using my collection to create art for the last 5 years has created a one-off piece of art to show his support for John Galliano.  I am happy to let you see the result, which I delivered to a person in the  fashion industry who is vociferous in their support of Mr Galliano.

Prophet and Loss

The artist has asked that these comments be published alongside the image of the artwork:

The irony of the name “Christian Dior” seems too good to miss in this sad story of anti-semitic media hysteria against someone who is a creative genius.

Does anyone really believe that John Galliano has no Jewish friends, valued customers or colleagues, that he loves Hitler and wishes all annoying people’s parents had been killed in concentration camps?

The fact is, Mr Galliano describes himself as Gay and a Gypsy, two definite criteria for a one way ticket to the Nazi gas chambers. His comments were stupid, one-on-one acidic insults toward a couple of people who were attacking him while he was drunk and under the pressure that comes 2 weeks before showing a major collection.

He made some mistakes, was crucified in the media, he apologized and is trying to improve himself by dealing with the issues that led to the outburst.

Would you deserve to  lose your career and potentially get sent to prison for 6 months for such comments about Jews, or Muslims or Irish Christian terrorists?

Should Monty Python be imprisoned for joking about the torture and deaths from the Spanish Inquisition as it insults Mr Galliano’s ancestors?

Of course not, and neither should John Galliano.

I eagerly await his resurrection.

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