From Nike x MoMA to Jeff Koons x Louis Vuitton, a host of collaborations between fashion and art are popping up. From now on, expect to get your ‘it pieces’ from the gift shop.
When Justin Bieber’s Purpose tour merchandise travelled beyond concert halls and into H&M stores in 2017, industry publication The Business of Fashion argued that we’d hit “peak merch”. But just as music merch is starting to feel a little played out, museum merch is seemingly stepping up to take its place, with art institutes teaming up with fashion designs.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by MoMA Design Store (@momadesignstore)
A post shared by MoMA Design Store (@momadesignstore)
Look at Off White designer, Virgil Abloh. Following a successful collaboration with Nike last year, he has designed a line of Nike Air Force Ones, complete with zip tie, with New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Considering Abloh has worked with feminist artist Jenny Holzer in the past – and since the museum has a hugely lucrative retail arm that almost eclipses its exhibitions – it’s not a surprising pairing. Except these trainers have already hit the mainstream – Drake was seen wearing them, courtside, at a recent basketball game.
Earlier this month, MoMA released a capsule collection of embroidered hoodies and black balaclavas, inspired by the Is Fashion Modern? exhibition, displaying the gallery’s logo. It was a similar story at London fashion week men’s, when A-Cold-Wall’s Samuel Ross (a former assistant of Abloh) showed a loving bootleg-inspired logo of the National Gallery. Then there was Raf Simons’s recent multi-year corporate partnership between the Warhol Foundation and fashion house, Calvin Klein.
All those fragrant ladies forever buying exquisite scarves, statement brooches and decorative brollies from the V&A were well ahead of the trend. I’m a streetwear fan, but even I’ve noticed it’s in gift shops that I am increasingly finding my best accessories. Museum merch is not only a proclamation of our taste in art and a proud passport stamp, but in a fashion world obsessed with exclusivity, it’s perfectly limited edition. The clothes are usually only on sale for an exhibition’s duration and you’d be hard-pressed to find any of them online.
