Upon entering the show space, we walked along a wall full of graffiti and collages of artists, musicians, red/blue spray marks and Tommy Hilfiger monograms. Inside, the interior was covered in tin foil adding to the atmosphere of creativity. Models having their makeup done, press waiting around, the band doing sound check, an open workshop with live silver screen printing, shirts being autographed and portraits of guests being taken, printed as posters and quickly glued on the wall. An ode to Warhol’s famous Factory, the collection’s presentation was an immersive space with so much for your eyes to take in. But it wasn’t just a physical space, the show also stepped into the metaverse through a QR code where you can download the artworks as unique NFTs and roam around a Roblox style landscape.
Among the chaos, Tommy Hilfiger and Richard Quinn sit smiling. We met with the to talk more about the collection presentation.
SLEEK: Let’s start with the collection’s title, “Factory”. Andy Warhol’s Factory is the epitome of how art can be a collaborative process as opposed to centring around the ego of a single artist. Can you share with us your first memory of visiting the Factory and what that taught you about creating collaboratively?
Tommy Hilfiger: When I visited Andy’s Factory in the Eighties there was a lot going on, he had a movie being filmed in one part of the building, he had a rock band practising in another, there were celebrities from Hollywood and the music world coming in and out, he was painting canvases, he was doing polaroids of different pop culture icon. It was a multidisciplinary and multimedia environment that traversed fields, from fashion to art to music to entertainment to celebrities and pop culture.
S: How did you two meet and how did the idea for the collaboration come about?
Richard Quinn: Tommy saw some work we did at the British Fashion Award for Kylie Minogue and her dancers, then someone threw a party and we all met there. We started talking and it all came together very naturally.
S: This collaboration takes inspiration from the past with reference to Warhol’s Factory, while also projecting the brand into the future, by streaming the show in the metaverse and the creation of NFT garments. What do each of you think will be the opportunities for these new phygital (physical + digital) garments?
TH: I think it’s only the beginning, the metaverse is already here, many people are living and playing online every day. Video games play a very important role in our modern society, and there are many shopping video games. In this particular one in Roblox you can pick your avatar and dress the avatar in Tommy digital skins, but also buy the physical garment off the runway.
S: Does this also support your “See now buy now” approach (the clothes presented in the runway are available to buy this season, not for the upcoming one)?
TH: Yes. I think fashion going forward will have to compress its waiting time to keep up with a digital world of consumers.
S: And for you Richard, since print and patterns are a big part of your style, do you see a possibility to experiment on them in new ways on digital garments, making use of these new technologies?
RQ: Yes, I think the opportunity of getting the digital and physical garment creates a new world of possibilities. Designing a print that can work on cloth but also has the potential to be animated or implemented in digital creates a very modern challenge.
S: And what about the possibility of consumers not wanting the physical garment any more? In a world where everyone is wearing AR goggles, we could walk around wearing only our digital outfits. Not only that, but we could potentially be seen wearing something different depending on who is looking at us and the device they are using. Does this scenario worry you?
TH: This technology exists today, it’s not even the future. I think that human beings will always want to have some sort of material on our body, because of comfort, because of warmth among a number of other reasons. I don’t think that will ever change, it’s a very primordial need. We’ll always need food, we’ll always need fashion.
S: We also need fashion as a tool for expressing our identity. Tommy Hilifger recently went through a rebranding with the new monogram. What does it mean to change your logo, do you see this as a clean cut from the past or is it just a natural evolution of the brand?
TH: I think it refreshes the identity. We don’t abandon our flag, we don’t abandon who we are and what we stand for, we just refresh and project ourselves to the new era.
S: And to you Richard, your iconic daisy patterns also underwent a transformation, from a very naturalistic and realistic image to a more geometric stylised. Is this also an effect of this collaboration?
RQ: Yes, I think they are really graphic and they go very well with the monogram and the colour scheme. Also the campaign and NFT roll-out was the fruit of a collaboration, and for me the nice thing about it was doing one part of it and then passing it on and seeing what the next artist does with it and where it ends up.
The technologies might have changed, but the multidisciplinary spirit of Andy Warhol’s.
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