Art and fashion have never been strange bedfellows. In fact, they’ve frequently coupled. Designers going back as far as Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with noted surrealists like Salvador Dali in the 1930’s and 40’s. Who else could have come up with a lobster hat? Miuccia Prada has incorporated filmmakers, fairytale illustrators and architects into her designs. Louis Vuitton has joined forces with the likes of Murakami, Richard Prince; Alexander McQueen united with Damien Hirst.
A number of L.A’s best known visual artists have also made forays into fashion: Alex Israel designed fragrance bottles and limited edition handbags with LVMH. Painter Sterling Ruby founded streetwear brand S.R. Studio; Venice-based graphic artist Eli Russell Linnetz created ERL with Comme des Garcons; he also did a collaboration with Dior Hommes. But Guggenheim award winning Venice painter/sculptor Chuck Arnoldi – long associated with the famed 1970’s Venice artists Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston and Laddie John Dill – was not one of them.
So how did the prolific artist come to collaborate with British luxe label Alexander McQueen on the luxe British brand’s spring 2023 mens and womens collections? Read on.
The late Alexander McQueen (1969 to 2010) was fashion’s original Brit bad boy, known as well for his immaculate Saville Row tailoring (worn by Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Obama, Cate Blanchett, Beyonce’) as he was for his darkly fantastical silhouettes and flamboyant fashion show spectacles. McQueen once used actual holograms for models; at another show, he had models surrealistically spray-painted by robots. McQueen was no stranger to bold – often alienating – imagery. Lee McQueen’s – as McQueen was known to friends – legacy has been emulated by successor Sarah Burton in his goth couturier footsteps, dressing Lady Gaga, designing Kate Middleton’s wedding gown – and remaining as true to his love of fine art and big ideas as possible.
Not unlike Charles Arnoldi.
“I got a call from people in London who work for McQueen,” says Arnoldi, a rebel in his own right, at his wildly impressive Venice studio, packed to the gills with paintings, sculptures and prints, from traditional oil paintings to bronze sculptures, monoprints, lithographs, chainsaw paintings made from wood panels cut into with power saws, aluminum paintings and polyethylene wall reliefs. One description of Arnoldi’s oeuvre reads: “His vocabulary of artistic expression is constantly expanding.”
“They’d seen a painting of mine from the ‘arc series” I did in 2009,” he explained to me at his studio one December afternoon. “They wanted to use it to create dresses for women, suits and t-shirts for men. What they’d sent me was just a black and white image they probably found in a book. I honestly had no idea exactly how they found my painting.” The only problem: “I didn’t at that time have a clue who or what Alexander McQueen was.” When Arnoldi finally received sketches of geometric-tinged black and white patterned dresses on t’s, mens’ suits, scarves, he was suitably impressed at the likewise artistry. “I said to my wife (novelist) Katie (Arnoldi), ‘this stuff looks pretty good,’ so I told them, sure – go ahead and use it.’” Apparently McQueen’s team had never collaborated with a living artist; the resulting pieces in their pre-spring/summer 2023 mens and womens collection are titled “brushstroke” – incorporating a shadow of a pink/mauve hue to adapt it to spring/summer tones.
The collab proved worth it when an angularly cut silk dress with a full volume ruffled skirt in Arnoldi’s original black and white – with added strokes of powder pink – arrived, fitting Katie Arnoldi (author of books“Chemical Pink,” “The Wentworths,” “Point Dume”) to a t. “Whenever Chuck’s honored, I’ll be wearing it,” she laughed. Given how prolific Arnoldi is, that could be often. Will the artist himself be wearing one of the McQueen/Arnold “brushstroke” mens’ sharp tailored suits? “Maybe I’ll wear the t-shirt,” Chuck laughed. “I’m more of a John Varvatos shirt and jeans guy.” Guess he’d rather make art than wear it.
