Those planning to attend the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre
museum in Paris – running until 24th February 2020 – have another reason to
do so since Friday: They can not only admire the largest collection in the
world of Da Vinci’s paintings, together with 22 drawings, but also check
out Virgil Abloh’s Leonardo capsule collection in the gift shop.
The line of t-shirts and hoodies is a collaboration between Abloh’s
luxury fashion label Off-White and the Louvre, in honour of the visionary
artist’s 500th death anniversary. The pieces of the capsule collection
combine sections of Da Vinci’s painting with the Off-White logo. Prices
range from 355 US dollars (265 British pounds) to 640 US dollars (480
British pounds).
“I was fascinated with Da Vinci early on – I was in my senior year at
Wisconsin, taking an art class. I was super interested not only by his
artworks but also by the influence he had in many disciplines besides art:
science, engineering, architecture… To me, he symbolizes everything the
Renaissance was,” commented Virgil Abloh, founder and artistic director of
Off-White, in a press release published by the Louvre on Friday.
The designer has certainly taken his share of inspiration from the
Renaissance artist, using graphic images of his famous Mona Lisa
for Off-White’s spring/summer 2018 collection on shirts and iPhone cases
and on a lightbox for a houseware collection for Swedish furniture store
chain Ikea. During Paris Fashion Week in January, Abloh presented one of
his label’s collections beneath the Louvre.
Virgil Abloh newest collaboration celebrates Da Vinci’s work
For this capsule collection, two works in particular have been featured, Da
Vinci’s Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and an Angel,
known as The Virgin of the Rocks, and Saint Anne, the Virgin
Mary, and the Infant Jesus Playing with a Lamb, known as Saint
Anne, woven together with da Vinci’s iconic drawings, including his
anatomical sketches of the male form. The images of the capsule collection
were shot inside the Grande Galerie of the Louvre.
“The Louvre has always been a place of life, of inspiration for the
creators of each era. We are thrilled to see how the palace and museum
collections have inspired Virgil Abloh. Our collaboration with Off-White
and this multitalented artist also gives us the opportunity to reach out to
a new audience and encourage them to take interest in the Louvre,” said
Adel Ziane, director of external relations, Musée du Louvre.
“I want to crash together these two worlds that are seemingly different:
fashion and high art. It’s a crucial part of my overall body of work to
prove that any place, no matter how exclusive it seems, is accessible to
everyone. That you can be interested in expressing yourself through more
than one practice and that creativity does not have to be tied to just one
discipline. I think that Leonardo da Vinci was maybe the first artist to
live by that principle, and I am trying to as well,” added Abloh.
The Leonardo capsule collection by Virgil Abloh will be available in the
Louvre gift shop and online via Off-White.com and Farfetch.com, and in
shops including Off-White Paris, Off-White Milan, the EM_PTY Gallery in
Soho, New York City, and at Browns.
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Photos: copyright Thibaut Grevet / Louvre