POP CULTURE
from the man to his works to his personal style, Andy Warhol takes on the role of fashion muse this season. Imran Jalal reports.
Andy Warhol as fashion muse.
Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal, the largest retrospective featuring about 400 of the late artist’s works, started the final leg of its Asian tour at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum last month. But the influence of Warhol – who ironically coined the term “15 minutes of fame” – has never waned, even 27 years after his death (he died in 1987 from complications following a gall bladder operation).
In fashion, where he got his start illustrating for publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, the man holds as much cachet. This season, when the works of ’20s Art Deco artist Erte and Italian conceptual painter Alighiero Boetti are inspiring prints on runway looks (at Gucci and Jil Sander respectively), Warhol continues to be an influential figure.
Coca-Cola, the American beverage that he turned into a pop culture symbol for consumerism (it was a recurring motif in his work), is celebrated in at least three collections. Shoe designer Charlotte Olympia created heels in the shape of the Coke bottle, while Marc Jacobs and Ashish reproduced its logo on sweatshirts and sequinned tank tops respectively.
“Warhol canonised the icons of his generation, from the Coca-Cola bottle to Marilyn Monroe,” says Jennifer Copley, curator of local Pop Art gallery Collectors Contemporary. Now, his images are so ingrained in popular culture and its collective consciousness, it is Warhol’s artworks that have become iconic. For instance, it is almost impossible to think of Marilyn without thinking of Warhol’s famous portrait of her.”
Equally emulated are his saturated silk-screened portraits of high-profile personalities across industries – Monroe, Mao Zedong, Muhammad Ali, to name a few. In S/S ’91, Versace put his prints of Monroe and James Dean onto evening gowns. Independent designers – licensed or not – are known to do the same on tees (just walk through Bangkok’s Chatuchak Weekend Market for proof).
“Warhol understood the public’s fascination with celebrity, glamour and style. Fashion was a muse for him and, in turn, he and his works have become a muse for fashion," says Copley.
“Warhol canonised icons of his generation, from the Coca-Cola bottle to Marilyn Monroe.”