ART TO WEAR
Now more than ever, photography, paintings and illustrations are showing up in unexpected places—especially our wardrobes. Isabel B. Slone charts a selection of brands that are looking at the bigger picture.
Paintings and photography don’t just have to hang on a wall, thanks to these clever fashion business innovators.
Wearable art can be wildly varied— whether it’s a piece from the collab between elusive Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton that can be found on resale sites for thousands of dollars or an item made by a kitchen-table crafter being sold on Etsy. And there’s a group of labels conquering the creative middle ground with fine art that can raise one’s spirits as well as the design of a humble scarf or tee.
Izzy Wheels
Izzy Keane was born with a neurological disorder called spina bifida, and from an early age, the fashion enthusiast never felt that the clinical look of her wheelchair reflected her bubbly personality. She was drawn to modifying it, adding elements like flowers, beads and stickers; at Christmastime, she would even adorn it with tinsel and twinkling lights. “The decorations turned her wheelchair into a really friendly object,” says her sister, Ailbhe. While enrolled at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ailbhe, inspired by Izzy’s decorations, came up with an idea to make vibrant wheel covers that could be switched out as easily as a pair of earrings. And eventually Izzy Wheels was created, offering detachable wheel covers for those who want to express their personal style beyond their clothing. Since its launch in 2016, the brand has collaborated with artists like Orla Kiely, Camille Walala, Hattie Stewart and Canadian Callen Schaub; Ailbhe says that the company receives approximately 1,000 applications a year from creatives around the world eager to see their work emblazoned on someone’s wheels. She also says that the covers have radically shifted the way strangers respond to her sister—who is, naturally, one of Izzy Wheels’s most visible ambassadors. They now come up to her in the street to compliment her fashion statement instead of awkwardly averting their eyes. “A wheelchair is an amazing device that helps people get around,” says Ailbhe. “You should be able to make it your own.”
InFocus Canada
Most people don’t have a spare $5,000 to spend on an original work of art, but $75 for a scarf is far more reasonable—so goes the philosophy behind British Columbia-based apparel company InFocus Canada. Founded by Clare Hodgetts and Kemp Edwards, InFocus was born out of their mutual passion for conservation. Both avid surfers, they believe that the more people are able to experience the visceral beauty of nature—even if through a piece of clothing—the more they will want to protect it. The pair began collaborating with local nature photographers like Chris Collacott and Owen Perry, printing their vivid landscape photos on scarves and donating 10 per cent of the sale price to a charity of the photographer’s choice. Since then, they’ve expanded their focus across the globe, working with National Geographic photographers like Ami Vitale, who photographed the last two living northern white rhinos in existence. “Scarves work well because they’re like a big canvas,” says Hodgetts. The rectangular shape allows for the artwork to be reproduced in its entirety, and for the photographers with whom InFocus collaborates, the scarves—which are made out of recycled plastic bottles that have been sourced from post-consumer waste—represent a medium that’s more accessible than showing work within the confines of an imposing white-walled gallery. Since its inception in 2016, InFocus has raised almost $20,000 for charities like the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Earthjustice and has no plans of stopping any time soon.
Le Galeriste
It all started with a fur coat. Thierry Charlebois, founder of Montreal-based streetwear brand Against Nudity, had purchased the rights to a collage by artist Erin Case and decided to print it on the lining of a fur coat. “It drove me mad,” says Charlebois. “It was all I could think about.” To Charlebois, the artistic lining represented the pinnacle of beauty and purpose. Shortly thereafter, he retooled his entire business model and Against Nudity became Le Galeriste—a brand that works with artists to reproduce their works on T-shirts, masks and dresses while offering them a percentage of royalties from the sales. Le Galeriste works with everyone from cacophonous street artist Taka Sudo to watercolour artist Anita Helen Cohen. All of the clothing is manufactured in-house in Montreal—the result of a lesson that Charlebois learned after a painting he had once bought the rights to ended up on a sweater in an American department store. (The mill he had contracted to produce the fabric was peddling the extra material to other brands.) And the ability to cut royalty cheques for artists has become a significant raison d’être for Charlebois. Nathalie Coutou, an Indigenous artist from southern Quebec, was able to open her own store—Khewa in Wakefield, Que.,—because of her Le Galeriste earnings and is now able to transfer those benefits to other Indigenous artists by selling their work. “This is the first time in my life where I go to bed thinking ‘Wow, I am really making a difference,’” says Charlebois. “I have a threeyear-old son; after him, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
LE GALERISTE WORKS WITH EVERYONE FROM CACOPHONOUS STREET ARTIST TAKA SUDO TO WATERCOLOUR ARTIST ANITA HELEN COHEN.
NoMiNoU
After Jullianna Charlton’s mother passed away in 2007, the Vancouver-based entrepreneur uncovered a treasure trove of drawings while cleaning out her home. “She had sketches under the couch cushions and in the linen closet,” she recalls. Charlton’s mother, Naomi, was a “nomadic hippie” who sometimes traded her artwork in exchange for “a side of beef” but never received recognition in her lifetime—something Charlton sought to change by giving her mother’s drawings a wider audience. She landed on the idea of printing her art on athleticwear and in 2014 founded NoMiNoU— a portmanteau of her mother’s name and the phrase “No me, no you.” Each pair of leggings, Charlton hoped, would give the wearer a reason to stand a little taller because they find strength and pride in the design they’ve chosen to wear. Before long, artists were approaching Charlton to transform their work into wearable art; NoMiNoU has worked with a number of Indigenous artists, like Roy Henry Vickers, Mark Gauti and David R. Maracle. Through a collaborative process, Charlton converts their imagery into a pattern that will fit on an array of garments and accessories and pays the artists both a licensing fee and royalties for every item sold. “A lot of artists don’t want to be entrepreneurs; they want to create and share their art, and I am a vehicle—a conduit—for that,” she says. “To be trusted with their artwork—there’s no greater honour.”