It isn’t unusual for a designer to name-check an artist or a favorite painting when asked about the inspiration behind a collection, but Alice + Olivia’s Resort lineup took the theme to new heights. In collaboration with the Basquiat estate (with half of all proceeds benefiting CFDA initiatives to support young talent), Stacey Bendet paid homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat in splashy and subtle ways. Some pieces were digitally printed with his graffiti-esque paintings, while others took cues from the artist’s famous notebook entries or his eclectic personal style. “I didn’t want to just slap his paintings on things,” Bendet said. “I wanted [the prints] to feel like real paintings and feel dimensional, and I wanted the clothes to have elements of him, too.”
The floor-skimming, A-line silk skirts covered in his paintings stole the show—the colors and details were stunningly vivid, and Bendet embroidered over certain areas or sprinkled sequins over expanses of color for a 3-D effect. They really did look like pieces of art; teamed with a painted leather jacket or a lilac button-down, they’d be a no-brainer for a high-wattage art benefit.
A+O shoppers who aren’t ready to make such a statement will go for the casual items that mirrored Basquiat’s color palette, like the bold striped knits and trousers, or the charming accessories etched with Basquiat’s signature crown motif. Bendet was also thinking about what the women who surrounded Basquiat might have worn in the ’80s; her monochromatic “power suits” were designed with gallerists in mind, and she envisioned one of Basquiat’s girlfriends in acid-wash jeans and a bomber jacket. Bendet certainly wasn’t at a loss for ideas; her research was particularly in-depth thanks to Tamra Davis, a friend who directed the Basquiat documentary The Radiant Child. The film includes can’t-miss footage of Basquiat as a kid, often dressed in stretched-out sweaters and paint-splattered shirts. “Tamra would tell me these stories about how he let his dog pull on the arms of his sweaters so they’d be superlong, or how he would go to Maxfield and buy these fancy Armani suits just to get them covered in paint,” Bendet explained.
Just like works of art, each piece will be a limited edition when the collection hits stores in November. There might be a few hundred shift dresses, for instance, and each will be labeled with an item number and the title of the painting that inspired it. Last year, Bendet kicked off the CFDA artist collaboration series with Domingo Zapata; next year she’ll team up with another artist, but it will be tough to beat Basquiat.
