ART BY DESIGN G
Georgia O’Keeffe, fashion icon? Designers say ‘yes'
EORGIA O’Keeffe is more than a modernist master and feminist hero: She’s also a fashion icon.
Throughout the decades, the American artist — who died in 1986 at the age of 98 — has become as well-known for her imperious, stark personal style as for her abstract flower and Southwestern landscape paintings.
In the past five years, designers such as Valentino, Michael Kors and Gareth Pugh have put out O’Keeffe-inspired collections. Charlize Theron even posed as the artist for a 2009 Vogue shoot at O’Keeffe’s New Mexico ranch.
Her fashion sense extended beyond the almost monastic black-and-white looks long associated with her persona. And now an exhibit, “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern,” opening Friday at the Brooklyn Museum, not only comprises hundreds of photographs and 36 of her paintings, but nearly 50 items from her wardrobe.
These include patterned kimonos, colorful smock dresses and pieces by Pucci and Balenciaga, who, before launching his own line, handcrafted a suit for the painter.
Here’s a look at how O’Keeffe’s clothes and art evolved together, sometimes in surprising ways.
PAIRING 1: “PATIO WITH CLOUD” & MADRAS DRESS
After O’Keeffe left New York for New Mexico in the ’40s, her sense of color was “liberated,” says curator Lisa Small. O’Keeffe’s embrace of more vibrant hues in her art bled into her wardrobe; she even sewed this day dress out of a shocking-pink woven madras fabric in the ’50s. “America had been so color-deprived during World War II because of rations, so suddenly there were these new dyes and fabrics,” Small says. “O’Keeffe was always attuned to broader trends.”
PAIRING 2: “MANHATTAN” & KIMONO-STYLE COAT
O’Keeffe’s simple lines, forms inspired by nature and minimal ornamentation translated to her clothes, which she often made. But this gorgeous kimono-inspired coat, which she likely bought in the late 1920s, represented a rare foray into color. “O’Keeffe always kept up with what others were wearing, and she knew the trend for tie-dying,” says Small, citing the ensemble’s dip-dyed lining. From the early ’30s through the ’40s, O’Keeffe’s work became close to surreal, as shown by this painting of her adopted city from 1932.
PAIRING 3: “BLUE #2” & EMILIO PUCCI DRESS
O’Keeffe nabbed this op-art-like frock by Italian designer Emilio Pucci around
1954. The dress not only incorporates several O’Keeffe signatures — a V-neckline, contrasting bands around the neck and wrists, and convenient side pockets, a rarity in those days — but also features a geometric design at a time when O’Keeffe was moving away from the lush landscapes made in her first years in New Mexico, and heading back toward abstraction.often had “The a direct changes relationshipin her paintingsto the changes going on in fashion,” says Small. “I wouldn’t say that one influenced the other, but they would go hand in hand.”
“Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern” runs through July 23. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn; 718-501-6354.