Miguel Adrover Considers Selling Rights to Name
The designer believes his name stands for a philosophy encompassing sustainability, organic production, environmentalism and social consciousness.
Miguel Adrover is thousands of miles away from fashion’s epicenters, but he is dialed-in enough to know his name still means something, which is why he may sell it.
Two months after staging “Death With Roasted Peppers,” an other-worldly installation of art and photography in Majorca, the designer-turned-artist is mulling over putting a price tag on the rights to his name. A real flamethrower in New York’s Nineties fashion scene, Adrover shuttered his company after financial troubles and retreated to his homeland to open a bar. Now “for a good amount,” he would be game. “That’s a good name, right?” he asked rhetorically of his signature label in a phone interview Tuesday.
The way Adrover sees it, he has created a philosophy within the industry (that involves upcycling, sustainability, organic production, environmentalism and social consciousness,) and that “should be out there” and put into practice. “It’s still very up-to-date. Vaquera, the designers in New York, made a T-shirt with my face on it. They sent me one of these T-shirts. I was thinking, ‘Imagine, these people have put my face on a top and I’m still alive and here,” he explained. “Yesterday I was supposed to have a Skype interview with American Vogue. But there was a problem so the guy couldn’t do it.”
Another incentive was recent talks with a fair trade company that initially inquired about collaborating. “They wanted to repurpose my more famous pieces, and they wanted my name. After that, they don’t really care whether it sells or not,” he said. “I realized it was a little tricky. I would get money if I sell my name. If I don’t sell, I don’t get anything.”
Still committed to his art pursuits, Adrover will fly to Vancouver next month to scout locations for his installation at the next edition of the Vancouver Biennale (including the side of a highway to create eco-warriors as a reminder of the waste of plastics. Like Jenny Holzer, Paul Pfeiffer, Dan Graham and Simone Leigh, Adrover will be creating site-specific work that will be unveiled next spring, according to Jeffery Uslip, a curator for the Vancouver Biennale. Having known about Adrover’s work for decades, Uslip said, “Miguel’s point of view of the world can be not only a mirror…but also how do we reimagine a space to think through some of these critical issues.”
Now Adrover is reimagining his fashion life. “My problem with having a company has always been financial, because I don’t have any support. All the other designers have somebody next to them. I never had a person like that before,” he said. “I just think it would be good to continue to be active. I guess no one ever considered that I would do that. But there are a lot of people getting in my gigs. It would make sense, but let’s find a designer who could do it.”
But should Adrover sell his name, he may stay for a stretch “to guide it. Of course, I will need to stress how I think and how I feel, if you want it to be authentic. It would be much easier with me [on board], because I’m still alive and my philosophy is still active these days,” he said.