Objects IV Life RTW Fall 2023 – WWD
Thu 19 Jan
For a fashion brand, a show can be make or break, but for American artist Daniel Arsham, it was both.
The presentation of the third chapter of his Objects IV Life (pronounced “objects for life”) clothing line at Galerie Perrotin involved the artist and two assistants breaking apart plaster sculptures to reveal denim workwear jackets hidden within.
A total of 12 looks, if one counts the all-white ensemble Arsham was sporting, showcased the twill cotton separates, denim jackets and baggy leg jeans paired with steel-toed utility boots that form the core of the line.
The season’s color palette offered sophisticated hues of teal, lilac and green, as well as black.
New in this chapter is the outerwear, ranging from twin-zip jackets in Casentino wool and a polar vest to down jackets using recycled filling and cotton shells.
While the three plaster-coated looks may not be commercially viable per se, the artist said after the presentation that he’d recorded the patterns created by the cracking and peeling for future prints, with one example already looped around his neck.
Creating a clothing line is an idea that first sparked after his collaborations with Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones, as the idea that art is a practice “you do from the outside, while clothing houses [and] can change the way that your character is, the way you feel” took hold, explained Arsham.
Launched in June, the line is meant as “a uniform for a creative life” comprising a wardrobe of revisited workwear staples that Arsham intends to grow in a reasoned manner to stay “really strong and concise and sharp.”
Offering a uniform-based wardrobe may not be a novel idea, but given the sharp execution and smartly priced luxury positioning, Arsham’s Objects IV Life was certainly artfully done.