This first thing that landed in my inbox this morning was an email from Japanese fashion brand UNIQLO, announcing their collaboration with the artists KAWS + Warhol. The range lands in stores on August 22nd and, in addition, UNIQLO is sponsoring the exhibition, KAWS + Warhol, which opened on the 18th of May 2024 at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Thirty years after the death of Andy Warhol, this is the first time that the two artists are being shown together. KAWS (his tag from when he was a teenage graffiti artist) lives and works in Brooklyn where he creates sculptures and screen prints – and is the living example of someone who crosses over extremely successfully from the formality of being an artist represented by a gallery, into the cut and thrust of the commercial world.
Avidly collected by many, including by some of the most famous rappers in the world, KAWS collaborates on limited edition, collectable toys, skateboard decks, and clothing, where he has collaborated with A Bathing Ape, Supreme, Uniqlo and Dior. As an artist, he is represented by Skarstedt gallery in New York, which represents some of the greatest artists of all time including Keith Haring, Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons. In 2019, at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, a work of KAWS’ sold for $14.7 million. The question is why would he do a collaboration with a high street fashion brand?
For over a decade, UNIQLO has committed to enhancing daily life for consumers through the appreciation of art, which they call UNIQLO Art For All. The company strives to educate and increase public access and engagement with the most prominent art institutions in the world, including MoMA, Tate, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. These deep relationships with the world’s greatest museums are an expression of the UNIQLO LifeWear philosophy (with an incredible group of LifeWear Ambassadors that includes Roger Federer). Could it be, then, that the relationship is good for everyone?
Not being much of a fan of graffiti/street art – although who could have failed to be intrigued by the nine Banksy art works that appeared all over London last week, with one local to the MBS offices in Regent’s Park at London Zoo? – I first came across KAWS in 2018 when Kim Jones was appointed Artistic Director for Dior Homme, joining from Louis Vuitton menswear. The world watched closely to see what Kim would do to top what he had already achieved at the iconic Louis Vuitton.
For his first show with the house in June 2018, he collaborated with KAWS and ‘blew up’ the recognized KAWS mascot/doll, named BFF, into a giant figure made out of thousands of pink roses and peonies wearing a black Dior suit.
Since that show, Kim has collaborated with artists at every show, all over the world — most recently, this summer in Paris with the 82-year-old ceramic artist, Hylton Nel from a tiny, dusty village off the beaten track, called Calitzdorp in the northern Cape, South Africa. Hylton mostly makes plates but he also makes Staffordshire-like figures and many are dogs and cats. Kim made about 10 replicas, each one about 30 feet high. They were placed down the middle of the catwalk and the models walked between them. What happened in a matter of days after the show for the artist was phenomenal proof of the power of international brands and the part that they play in the lives of artists.
Millions of people watched the show online – in real time and after the fact. Dior has 46.4 million followers on Instagram and Dior by Kim Jones, 28,000. Dior Ambassador, Lewis Hamilton was seen on Instagram, where he has 37.5 million followers, wearing a jacket designed by Dior with distinctive Hylton Nel motifs on it. And customers and fans of Dior await with anticipation for when the Nel cats and dogs hit the windows in stores all over the world in February 2025 when the collection launches. The week after the show, Nel’s gallery in Cape Town had an exhibition of his work. The opening was mobbed – the most well attended opening in the gallery’s history and by the end of the first day, the show had sold out.
Meanwhile, Massimo Dutti, the Spanish premium apparel brand owned by the world’s largest fashion retailer Inditex, is another label that has been transforming its shop windows and floors into dynamic exhibition spaces. Through its Art in Progress program, which began in 2020, the brand showcases the creativity of local artists from around the world, displaying their work in select stores across continents – from London, Paris, and Milan to South Korea, Singapore, Mexico, and beyond.
A recent collaboration features artist Val Castellet at its Mallorca store. Inspired by the island’s natural beauty, Castellet incorporates ancient techniques like weaving, basketry, and textile printing with organic materials, reimagining sustainable, contemporary craftsmanship.
In a previous collaboration in Lisbon, Ana Lima Netto’s work was exhibited on the terrace, where she explored the meaning of life and its transcendence by appropriating and deconstructing shiny, transparent materials commonly used in construction, while Pamen Pereira presented “The Bones of the Earth” at Massimo Dutti’s Barcelona flagship store on Paseo de Gracia, housed in a historic Catalan building. In Singapore, the store opening was led by pottery artist Jean Adrienne, an apprentice of 12th-generation pottery master Kato Hiroshige in Japan and master ceramicist Hwang Insung in Korea.
These collaborations align seamlessly with Massimo Dutti’s mission to embody a refined vision of natural elegance in today’s world. By embracing this approach, the brand hopes to engage its target customers – those who appreciate art and are inclined towards frequent consumption of premium products. While integrating craftsmanship directly into production can be challenging due to their relatively low-cost business model, incorporating art at the end of the value chain enhances the brand’s storytelling and elevates the in-store experience, ultimately strengthening its brand perception.
In return, this strategy also promotes local artists, giving them much-needed visibility. Unlike renowned figures like KAWS, who enjoy global recognition, many artists dedicate their entire lives to their craft, with only a few managing to showcase their work in galleries while the majority remain largely unknown.
As funding for the arts and education has been diminishing for at least 15 years, brands like Massimo Dutti, LVMH and Uniqlo have the resources to make up the shortfall; to support artists, to ensure the continuity of art creation through commercial means, to educate large populations of adults and children around the world, and, most importantly, to enrich all of our lives with something very meaningful.
