'COLLABS' Archives - Page 3 of 3

Highbrow Brands x Lowbrow Art

Comme des Garçons does it. Louis Vuitton does it. Even Hermès does it. They are among the handful of highly progressive fashion houses that have fused their highbrow brands with lowbrow street art by collaborating with avant-garde and sought-after national and international graffiti artists to help them disguise the luxury they’ve become known for. Why, you ask?

With the increasing popularity of online shopping, retail stores have more than ever become venues for experiences rather than just buying goods. While many high-end brands have been selling their sophisticated collections in equally high-end boutiques, the more avant-garde brands have been pushing the boundaries much further. By disguising and transforming retail spaces into art spaces with interchangeable street or store installations, such brands are able to truly heighten their brand’s publicity. And by using the work of the most cutting-edge artists the national and international art scene has to offer, they give a new and interesting platform to soft-sell their own high-ticketed and acclaimed collections from.

Paying attention to brands that deconstruct their store interiors or exteriors and offer extreme contrasts to their sophisticated collections has become something of a movement we all enjoy taking part in – whether just by visiting these makeshift storefronts or by exploring the art installations themselves; or simply by talking or reading about them in social media. In other words, retail is no longer about selling products that appeal to us, but about providing experiences that can truly seduce us.

The art fusion collaboration between Louis Vuitton Miami Project and the American mural graffiti artist RETNA in 2012 was one of numerous examples that set the blogosphere ablaze. RETNA, with his hieroglyphics and calligraphic designs, created murals that helped to disguise the traditional looking Louis Vuitton storefront. The store was easily spotted for its vandalized look, instead of its usual Louis Vuitton elegance. Provocative enough?

We know that by thoughtfully juxtaposing and contrasting opposites, a truly winning formula can arise. Take a look at the London or Tokyo or New York Comme des Garçons’ Dover Street Market in particular. In each and every location, fashion fuses with art ever-so tastefully and thoughtfully. You may ask yourself whether you want to look at avant-garde clothing displayed in cheap looking plywood structures or walk around beams covered in low-end graffiti knitting in order to spend so many of your hard-earned dollars. But in the end, who these days is interested in looking at innovative collections in traditionally intimidating and unwelcoming store settings that seem unfriendly for some while fatiguing, if not boring for others?

If you’re curious about what the next paradoxical differentiator brands have been experimenting with, stay tuned for our next post coming in September when we return from our summer break.

HERMÉS ATHENS x Philippos Photiadis

Comme des Garçons NY CHELSEA WALK IN ART MURAL

Comme des Garçons NY CHELSEA WALK IN ART MURALS

KONGO X HERMÈS

DOVER STREET MARKET NY

DOVER STREET MARKET LONDON x Mondongo

DOVER STREET MARKET TOKYO

COMME des GARÇONS x Hermes “Comme des Carrés” Collection’s Event

Kidult Tags Hermès Paris Store With ‘Love’

Louis Vuitton Miami Design District Store x RETNA

DOVER STREET MARKET Japan

DOVER STREET MARKET TOKYO

Charitable winning

It goes without saying that art fusion collaborations can take many forms. We’ve seen many grace the market as a new product, a new service, a special event, an in-store installation and as a graffiti application, to name a few of the more popular forms. Some run independently, but it’s worth noting that many of the most successful are a combination of two or more.

Savvy brand managers and artists alike know that the launch of a new product collaboration can be profoundly enhanced by a complementary in-store installation, multiplying the effects of the new product, and magnifying the retail experience at large. Art fusion collaborations that are thoughtfully layered, taking place on a few strategic levels are not surprisingly quite effective, or in other words, sought after and talked about.

The National Football League (NFL), Bloomingdales and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CDFA) undoubtedly knew this when they teamed up with a group of top designers to forge 48 bespoke football helmets in support of the NFL Foundation and team charities. The resulting art fusion collaboration of customized football helmets was indeed a multi-sensual, multi-faceted, multi-platform extravaganza. The helmets were designed by well-known designers like Helmut Lang, as well as up-and-comers like Monique Lhuillier for the event’s auction. The 48 haute couture helmets were then displayed in Bloomingdales 59th street store windows in New York and promoted nationally across all marketing channels of Bloomingdales, CDFA and NFL.

The bottom line? Art-fusion collaborations are the most successful when everyone is winning. The 48 haute couture helmets were an example of just that – art fusion pushing boundaries by simply employing artfulness and using all avenues available to promote the result. From this art fusion collaboration, everyone walked away a winner: Bloomingdales – engendering goodwill and fashion cred from its association with the inspiring event, the NHL Foundation – with the record-setting funds raised, the CDFA – getting exposure for its most talented designers, and of course the art lovers who bid and rightfully felt good about making a contribution towards something that’s not only desirable, but meaningful.

Recognizing art fusion as multi-dimensional collaborative opportunity that can lead to something potentially much larger than the sum of its parts can be the first step of challenging the status quo and bringing the freshness and innovation consumers are constantly searching for.

Stay tuned for our next post where we examine the strategy behind high-brow brands using low-brow in-store installations.

RICHARD CHAI

RACHEL ZOE

ALICE + OLIVIA

NICOLE MILLER

steven alan

alexis bittar

eugenia kim

tadashi shoji

fenton/fallon

MONIQUE LHUILLIER

How to plan a successful collaboration

Not surprisingly, an art fusion collaboration can be an intimidating process for brand managers. Every step requires uncompromising attention to detail, making it potentially easy to lose sight of the big picture. But by simply asking yourself a few questions before moving forward, it will be much easier to manage this extremely rewarding process.

Question no.1: Should your collaboration lean more towards being ‘art’ or ‘fusion’? In other words, is it more important for your brand to turn heads, be considered ground-breaking and be elevated by the leadership that signals, or will your brand benefit more from a collaboration that produces a desirable, saleable product? Or both?

At Arts & Labour, we frame this choice as ‘art fusion by deconstruction’ and ‘art fusion by integration’. In art fusion by deconstruction, a brand works with an artist, essentially to create branded art – a sculpture, a video, a mural, an event, a display – to make a strategic statement and to create talk value. Art fusion by integration leans towards the ‘fusion’ side, with the artist using elements of your brand to create a product or group of products. Determining which art fusion method best fits a brand’s objectives is a critical part of the process and will help determine its success. In some cases, a head-turning campaign that combines both methods – deconstruction elevating the brand with its artful integrity and integration creating immediate sales with its desirability – is the most advantageous for the long and short term.

Question no.2: Would I prefer the impact we create to be instant or built reliably and safely over time? Deciding whether a brand would benefit more from developing an art fusion collaboration as ‘a collection’ or as ‘a single piece’ is equally important. If a brand has no time to spare in creating as big a splash as possible, then developing art fusion as a collection is a good way of achieving that. Think about the inspiring art fusion collaboration between the renowned furniture company Herman Miller and the prolific type foundry House Industries. By combining the classic Eames wire-base tables with timeless typographic forms, House Industries created a collection where each and every table was simply impossible to resist. Or consider Lacoste’s collaboration with the Chinese artist Li Xiaofeng, who used both methods of art fusion, first creating ceramic sculptures that he then used to design a limited edition collection of Lacoste polos.

However, if the preference is to have the brand-enhancing benefits of art fusion safely grow over time, then developing it gradually piece-by-piece works. Again, think about Evian, a brand that’s been building their art fusion status continuously over the last eight years. It may be helpful to keep in mind the saying ‘getting further by going slower.’

Question no.3: Should your brand engage with one or a group of artists? Selecting one or a group of artists to collaborate with depends mostly on budget. If what you have available to invest does not allow your brand to collaborate with a well-known artist, then starting the process with a few emerging artists and potentially short-listing them to one or two finalists could be the way.

Established brands, whether high or low-end, tend to collaborate with one artist at a time. For example, Lacoste with Zaha Hadid, the avant-garde Iraqi-British architect; or Crate & Barrel with Paola Navone, the Italian, nomadic, multi-faceted artist and designer; or Target with Phillip Lim, the American fashion designer so loved by US First Lady, Michelle Obama. On the other hand, smaller brands and some not-for-profit organizations have had success working with a few artists at a time, each artist developing a smaller fragment of the whole. For example, the leading UK charity Save the Children created an art fusion collaboration with 14 British designers who designed traditional Christmas sweaters to help raise holiday funds for the organization.

The objective of art fusion is to capture the hearts and minds of consumers, and to stimulate social media into a frenzy of chatter, anticipation and desire. As with all worthwhile marketing pursuits, the amount of strategic thought that’s applied beforehand will only ensure the creative might you wield goes to good use.

Stand by for the next post that looks into art fusion collaborations where the outcome is an installation.

nike x Tom Sachs

herman miller x house industries

Dyson Vacuum Cleaners x Issey Miyake

Tom Prince Meltdown Chair Series

Li Xiaofeng for lacoste porcelan polo

lacoste x zaha hadid

crate & barrel x paola navone

ILOVEDUST x TOKYO FIXED GEAR

target x pillip lim

SAVE THE CHILDREN Christmas sweaters x 14 British designers

Should your brand create a collection or a masterpiece?

For most art fusion collaborations, brands choose one of two approaches: they develop a group of related products—the ‘one-of-many’ approach—or an exclusive ‘many-of-one’ product. Fashion brands like Comme des Garçons, Louis Vuitton, or Lacoste have favoured the ‘one-of-many’ choice, while brands like Evian, Absolute Vodka, or Domeau & Pérès have been known for limited-edition, art fusion releases of a single product. As long as the art fusion collaboration has a relevant story to tell, socially or culturally, we believe there’s no right or wrong.

Developing a narrative based on a collection of pieces (the ‘one-of-many’ approach) may sound like an easier task. But don’t be fooled. It takes skill and artistic vision to make this work. Each piece of a collection, like a character in a story, needs to embody a unique personality or the collection as a whole will fall flat. Be it a jacket, pair of sneakers or pants, a chair or a breadbox – each has to be able to go beyond its fundamental function and form. Good design of form and function is still essential, of course, but in order to nourish a sense of longing, the intention needs to go deeper.

If effective storytelling is measured by its emotional impact, then an art fusion collaboration consisting of a collection of pieces is no different. It needs to create a momentum we can’t help but to gravitate towards, to experience it and thus to own it. In a recent The New York Times Style Magazine article titled Perfect Pairing, Bruce Pask provides as colourful a commentary on the fall/winter 2014 collaboration of Belgian designer Raf Simons and the Los Angeles artist Ruby Sterling as the collaboration itself. “Together, they showed that fashion can become a work of art in its own right,” Pask notes. In this one-off collection for the label, presented in place of Simons’s eponymous line, Ruby decked out the runway with his signature large-scale sculptures. Shaped like red-white-and-blue fangs dripping from the ceilings, the artwork set the scene for the colorful clothes: khaki trench coats artfully appliquéd with brightly colored fabric strips and various articles emblazoned with words like “father” and “Abu Lang,” which Ruby explained stood for the phrase “abusive language.” “We loaded a lot of things into the clothing, both in terms of iconography and also our own path,” Ruby added.

On the other hand, Evian has been building its brand strategy one story at a time, by releasing a limited-edition single bottle, “Eau Couture,” annually for the last seven years. Evian’s narrative stands for beauty and purity. Their latest collaboration, with Lebanese fashion designer Ellie Saab, serves as an additional tribute to these qualities. “We are thrilled to see our bottle dressed by Elie Saab,” remarked Evian’s president, Martin Renaud. “This masterful artist designed a unique, subtle lace gown for our glass limited edition that elegantly underlines its purity while capturing how unique and precious the Evian water is.” For Evian, the ‘many-of-one’ approach has proven highly effective. Maintaining continuity and consistency has been essential; however, due to its innovative approach, Evian’s art fusion collaborations never feel repetitive–only refreshingly beautiful, each and every time.

What’s the rule of thumb? If brands decide to use art fusion collaborations based on the ‘many-of-one’ approach, then continuity and consistency are key. After all, building a narrative over a period of time demonstrates maturity and confidence. But be warned: missing a beat is that much more noticeable in this approach. On the other hand, while the ‘one-of-many’ approach requires less long-term commitment and offers more flexibility, the collection’s narrative needs to engage instantly. ‘One-of-many’ can be much less forgiving, but also tremendously rewarding.

Stay tuned for our next post that will focus on how to plan a successful collaboration.

DR. LAKRA x absolut vodka, Homage to Mexican Culture

Evian x Issey Miyake

Domeau & Pérès x Pharrell Williams

Domeau & Pérès x Matali Crasset

LACOSTE x OSAMU TEZUKA

Raf Simons x Ruby Sterling, FW 2014

EVIAN x ELIE SAAB

ELIE SAAB SS 2013 HAUTE COUTURE

Brand x Brand vs. Artist x Brand

Collaborations between two fashion brands, like Levi’s and Brooks Brothers, or between a fashion brand and a retail brand like Target and Philip Lim have become quite the norm. So much so that the blogosphere has taken to calling them ‘collabs’. However for most brands, the idea of collaborating with an artist (painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic designer) is still unchartered territory.

So far, only the avant-garde (Comme des Garçons) and well-established high-end brands (Louis Vuitton) have ventured into the realm and managed to not only pull off high-profile artist collaborations, but reap their enormous benefits. In each of these cases, the brand’s principals were either artists themselves (Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons) or had a personal interest in and connection to contemporary art (Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton). This no doubt played a hand in the success of the partnerships and not only for their brands, but equally well for the artists themselves.

Traditionally, when a brand needs to draw attention to itself and encourage a lift in sales, it defers to its advertising agency of record. As art fusion collaborations gain interest from savvy brand stewards who see their potential to gain even more attention and buzz than with traditional advertising, this is beginning to change. However, it’s a rare brand director who would consider approaching their ad agency to initiate an art fusion collaboration. Rarer still would be one who was willing to navigate through the national or international contemporary art scene on his or her own. Working with emerging and established artists can be delicate. “When there’s too much marketing and emphasis on product, the artists can suffer”, explains Hervé Mikaeloff, the art consultant and curator to LVMH and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. And without an experienced creative hand guiding the entire collaboration, the necessary balance of art and brand might not be achieved.

For some organizations, it can seem tempting to initiate collaborations directly in an effort to save money. But they must do so at their own risk. For most brands, it simply makes sense to enlist the help of a partner who can provide a ‘bridge’ between their brand and the artist and navigate through the complexities of the collaborative process. Much like an agency, the partner is able to develop creative collaboration ideas and effectively imbue them with thought-provoking communication and design before that the artist selection even begins. They have established connections with the best contemporary artists in the country and beyond, they guarantee a smoother process and the ability to approach the project strategically to achieve the results a brand desires and needs. For more on this subject, you can read about how we work at Why Arts & Labour?

In our next post, we will review some of our favourite collaborations from 2013. Until then.

BROOKS BROTHERS X LEVI’S

PHILLIP LIM FOR TARGET

PHILLIP LIM X TARGET

PORTER X LEVI’S

COMME DES GARÇONS X KEITH HARRING

COMMES DES GARÇONS X MATT GROENING

LOUIS VUITTON X RICHARD PRINCE x MARC JACOBS

COMMES DES GARÇONS X FILIP PAGOWSKI’S ICONIC PLAY

LOUIS VUITTON X RETNA