Art

The culture of fashion: Swatch x Jean-Michel Basquiat



Swatch x Jean-Michel Basquiat watch

I very nearly missed this memo.

Swatch just dropped three Basquiat collaboration watches as part of its Art Journey line. The turquoise ‘Ishtar’ one is very clever with its number placement, while the yellow ‘Hollywood Africans’ is also very cool, and the crown design has a certain IYKYK appeal.

Part of me thinks, what the fuck took you so long Swatch? (more…)



Quote of the Day: Kim Jones, Faith Fanzine



Kim Jones Silvia Venturini Fendi
“Silvia is really funny because she loves techno, she’s a really chic woman, and she’s like, ‘ooh, put some techno on.’ There’s a Jeff Mills mix that we listen to quite a lot.”
Kim Jones on Silvia Venturini Fendi, Faith Fanzine (more…)



See this: A Hard Man is Good to Find!



A Hard Man Is Good To Find - The Photographers Gallery - Keith Vaughan Highgate Men's Pond Album 1933

Another new London exhibition worth your attention. A Hard Man is Good to Find! at The Photographers’ Gallery is a brilliant little history lesson of queer photography of the male physique, surveying the years when making or distributing imagery of male nudity was illegal in the UK.

Centred on key areas of London – Highgate, Chelsea, Brixton, Pimlico, Portobello, Euston, Soho – it explores some of the ways that photographers would go about scouting modelling subjects. For example, a concentration of fit young males around the army barracks of Pimlico would result in images of partially uniformed men, including some fabulous styling. (more…)



The culture of fashion: AKILA x Keith Haring eyewear



AKILA x Keith Haring eyewear Paradise red

What’s the deal with all the Keith Haring collabs? The FT has the answer to all my questions here (pay wall), looking at the legacy of Keith Haring as an activist and accessible artist who coined the phrase “art is for everybody”. The company responsible for the never-ending list of collabs (Uniqlo, Primark, Junya Watanabe and Coach among them) is Artestar. The licensing agency also represents photographers, designers and creatives, and its success highlights the merchification of culture in the modern age.

But this latest Haring collab isn’t just a print slapped onto a tee. (more…)