Would you buy a 8.6 Million euro handbag? At least that’s what the Japanese businessman Shinsuke Sakimoto did this July for Jane Birkin’s original bag in an auction organised by Sotheby’s. Of course it is not just a bag, it is “the” Birkin bag — an iconic piece of archive, element of history, in other words a piece of art. The Bag’s presence in an art auction is not benign, it is the result of a long artification process luxury houses have organised in the past 20 years.
Elevating an object of craftsmanship to the status of artwork is only one of the tensions between the fashion sphere and the art world, as luxury comes from art and art is luxury. But with their strong mercantile dimension and high-budget marketing, Fashion brand’s breakthrough in the art world shakes its delicate ecosystem, with the risk of destroying it. While some groups like Prada understood early on their powers, other brands had to learn at their own risk what makes a constructive use of art. From modern patronage to private collections, artistic collaborations to art-keting, this article analyses luxury houses’s quiet yet powerful disruption of the Art World operated in the last 20 years.
Luxury is art, art is a luxury: the initial collaborations that planted the seed of art-keting
Firstly, in order to understand this disruption, we must delve into art and fashion’s former relation. Designers have always been immersed in an artistic environment, in the intellectual bourgeoisie they shared similar milieux, the same cafés in Paris, where Dali and Schiaparelli met. This encounter took place at the peak of their careers in the 1930s , together they elaborated Schiaparelli’s most memorable pieces like the Shoe hat, Skeleton dress, tears dress or the most famous Lobster dress. The collaboration doesn’t follow a marketing strategy, Schiaparelli already had a surrealist vision of fashion, making this collaboration organic, purely artistic.
In the 80s, a similar collaboration appeared between Keith Haring and Vivienne Westwood. While Haring’s works are now plastered over all kind of fabrics by H&M or Uniqlo, it is with Westwood he decided to partner with initially. Two icons of the 80s, two punks and marginals, shared a common vision of society which they elaborated in their respective mediums. For Westwood-Haring and Schiaparelli-Dali, the artists built on each other’s vision, the fabric was simply a new canvas.
But Dali and Haring were not unknowns in their times, rather two superstars for their contemporaries. Beyond artistic kinship, these collaborations are premises of what we call today adoration marketing: a marketing strategy that builds up on a respectful, authentic, and personal connection between clients and designers. This is blatant with Jonathan Anderson today, the 3 times winner of “Designer of the year” British Fashion award is more than a talented designer, he is adored by the public. Thus a collaboration with Dali or Haring is already a way of capturing their sympathy capital, their fame.
One who perfectly picked up another’s authority is Saint Laurent with his Mondrian collection of 65’. While Pierre Cardin and Courrèges started to rival him, Saint Laurent decided to take on Mondrian’s design to affirm a new, fresh, pop aesthetic. At a smaller scale this use of art can be found in Anderson’s work at Loewe or Dior making tote bags of books, plastering Van Gogh and Monet on dresses made of feathers (Loewe SS25).
These early forms of collaboration with famous artists like Schiaparelli and Westwood or capitalisation on one’s art set the ground for some contemporary marketing strategies. But it is only with the conglomerization of luxury houses in groups with bigger budgets that the transformation appeared.
A first disruption, the growing importance of private and corporate collections.
To make a Mondrian dress, you must own a Mondrian painting. And Saint Laurent’s personal art collection would make the most passionate art collectors jealous. Art has become a strong financial asset driving big corporations to invest in it. An investment trend led by JP Morgan and its 30,000 artworks accumulated since 1959. Thus, it is no surprise that with the rise of luxury groups their owners started accumulating plenty of artworks, creating strong corporate collections. For instance Pinault’s collection, and thus Kering’s, is estimated to be worth around 1.4 Billions with 3 to 10 thousands artworks.
However important, luxury’s corporate collections do not rival UBS or Microsoft’s, as they have other interests in art than high ROI or tax loopholes. In 1985, Cartier created the Foundation Cartier, in 1993 it was Prada and 2005 Louis Vuitton, foundations that highly expanded in the past 20 years. Brands started curating high quality exhibitions and called the world’s leading architects: Frank Ghery for Louis Vuitton, Jean Nouvel for Cartier, and Rem Koolkhas for Prada. The private museums exposing the brand’s private collections gained fame, power and influence in the European contemporary art world. Beyond the purported philanthropic goal, this diversification expands the brand, promoting its values and vision through new channels. This explains the bold architectural choices: buildings became an exterior sign of a brand’s strength, sticking out in Paris and Milan’s urban landscape. Art has become a logo expansion, a tool consolidating the brand.
Therefore, a corporate collection can be exposed, as LVMH did, developing brand image and anchoring its values. Yet before JP Morgan’s aim, the first corporate collection of Monte dei Paschi bank in Siena in 1472 only aimed to decorate. In this legacy, art democratization’s leader Jonathan Anderson initiated a retail revolution through art. Indeed, he decided to reshape Loewe’s retail shops around the “Casa Loewe project”, a new vision of shops as cosier spaces, deepening emotional connection to clients. They say “Our CASAS. Our global stores are designed to feel like the townhouse of an art collector, where collections are interspersed with art, craft and design from the LOEWE art collection”. This interesting initiative demonstrates the growing central role of art in building the “luxury image” essential to retail, reminding us of Gentle Monster’s retail revolution.
The power of modern patronage
But cultural support is not always visible, for instance Chanel doesn’t communicate on its actions, we only have access to supported institutions’ names. If not brand expansion or communication tools, what do brands really gain in supporting culture? Firstly, culture needs funding and luxury houses seem respectable patrons, as they are fed on culture. Secondly, it can have advantages within the company: Chanel’s doesn’t communicate publicly as patronage aims to develop common values within the company, a sense of pride to be part of the “Chanel” family. Lastly, non-economic retributions are key for brands. Even if donations should be selfless, brands can thus get access to places for dinner, brand events. Jaquemus’ support of Versailles covers all these points, he built his aesthetic on French savoir-faire, it is a strong brand catalyst, and it enjoys privileged access for brand dinners as the one made in 2023 that has overflowed Instagram.
The Art of Collaboration
It is right to think of Art and Fashion as mutually beneficial, but incomplete. As much as cultural institutions rely on luxury houses financially, luxury houses’s reliance on art is much greater. One explanation is the threat of authenticity loss, as beneficial as it digitalization can be for luxury, one jeopardized element is their authenticity. What art offers is what luxury lost in the eyes of many: an authentic image focused on craftsmanship instead of mercantilism. This is the driver behind the new artist-brands collaborations, presenting a real breaking point with the Schiaparelli-Dali or Westwood-Haring ones.
Some even call this “art-keting”, a strategic integration of art by luxury brands to differentiate themselves and bring authenticity. In reality, three main types of collaboration exist. Firstly, collaboration as a pricing strategy. Art is well-known for having no price limit relying on an artists’ fame, which is harder to value objectively than the quality of leather and craftsmanship a bag can have. For example, Fendi started in 2008 Baguette re-editions with famous artists like Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst, limited editions sold at much higher prices. Here another art-keting strategy is at play: rejuvenation. As hard as designing the new it-bag is, it is easier to make already famous models appealing to a younger audience. Louis Vuitton has mastered rejuvenation through its collaborations with Murakami or Yayoi Kusama. Two very famous japanese artists, extremely relevant for LV’s target audience of asian gilded youth. Same bags, new designs. Finally Hermès gives us a new explanation behind artistic collaboration: artification, a process it has mastered. The Birkin has been a key fashion element recovered by the art world, thus pushing Hermes to “artify” other iconic elements like their Carré collaborating with Hiroki Sugimoto to develop new designs, not only to get sold but to legitimise the carrés’ potential place in a Christies’ auction.
However one recent collaboration pushed these boundaries: Jeff Koons for Louis Vuitton. On iconic bags he printed iconic paintings, deformed by the leather and plastered with tacky letters, like cheap museum gift-shops counterfeits. It is surprising but voluntary, Koons provocatively questions the consumer: To what extent can art be diverted and recovered by fashion houses without losing its depth and soul?
Artification of luxury or commodification of art?
Koons proved it: while luxury houses invest in the art world, we should be worried about art. As much as an artification of luxury is desirable, a commodification of art is despisable. In 2022, when Banksy blamed Guess’ use of his graffiti, he blamed a design theft that erased his works’ political and social context, he blamed the commodification of his art. A risk Jeff Koons presented with his LV collab. The artist behind the “Copyright is for loser” quote, still protects his art from business recuperation which flattens his work to a mere marketing tool.
Miuccia Prada completely understood this Artification/commodification duality, saving the group from mistakes Guess or LV have made. She and her husband have developed a strong relationship with artists, their own collection present in the Fondazione Prada is renowned for the quality of its curatorial choices. This consideration of the artist’s work gave us the best art-brand collaboration: the Prada Marfa project, permanent artwork by the duo Elmgreen and Dragset. It is a faux store built following Prada’s boutique in the middle of the Chihuahua desert, conceived to naturally deteriorate with time. This piece of land art questions the status of art in mercantilist societies and critiques the luxury industry for its responsibility in art’s commodification. This project doesn’t come from Prada, but Miuccia allowed the duo to use her name and offered pieces of Prada 2005 collection for the shop.
To conclude, artists and designers have always maintained strong relationships as equals, fed my mutual inspiration and inter-fields development. Yet with the conglomerization of luxury houses, forming bigger groups with more means the balance has changed. Art started to become an interesting asset, not only to diversify their financial portfolio but also as an extension and consolidation tool to develop their brands notably through private foundations and integration in retail strategies. In addition to this, the rise of art-keting offered key aspects of pricing, rejuvenation and artification of their products. This artification however is risky for the art world as it comes with a commodification risk that flattens art to an aesthetic. A risk the Prada Group has avoided, demonstrating a respectful and considerate integration of art over the years, giving us some of the best artworks and fashion pieces art-lovers could dream of.
By Louis Pringault
Sources
https://www.myartbroker.com/all/articles/where-art-meets-fashion
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002243591100073X
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/loewe-ss25-runway-manet-van-gogh-2545450
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/louis-vuitton-foundation-fricc-1406812
https://www.pradagroup.com/en/perspectives/excursus/prada-marfa.html
https://www.loewe.com/eur/en/pd/stores-ourcasas/our-casas.html
