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This summer, renowned artist Daniel Arsham launched a major campaign in the fashion world with Objects IV Life. Shortly after the launch, we caught up with Arshem for this FRONTPAGE interview to dive into the brand and the ceremony.
Daniel Arshem has made works that reference the remnants of our nostalgic culture, such as Pokemon, vintage cars and Bart Simpson. A.D. A 2019 exhibit at Gallery Ron Mandos featured a plaster cast of Mickey Mouse wrapped in cloth and string, and a 2018 exhibit at Gallery Perotin in New York featured a full-size plaster of DeLorean. Back to the future.
For his latest project, he collaborated with Stefano Marinto, CEO and founder of Tomorrow, to launch a fashion brand called Things IV Life. In June, the brand launched its first line (dubbed Chapter 001), which featured a variety of workwear made from potato fabrics. In a way, by repurposing work clothes using dead materials, Life of Things IV fits perfectly with Arsham’s work as an artist.
Arshem is known for his frequent collaborations with the likes of Dior, Porsche, Rimowa and the design/architecture firm Snarkitecture – which he co-founded. With each of these collaborations, Arsham sought to add something new and unique to the conversation as opposed to using brands for name recognition. The sustainability crisis in the fashion world and the possibilities of using dead stock was a key factor in persuading Arsham and Marito to start things IV Life.
Ahead of the official launch of Chapter 001, we spoke to Arshem about his bold approach to fashion and its place in his artistic oeuvre.
How did the idea for Life of Things IV come about?
I had a lot of overlap with the fashion universe, and a lot of people told me I should start my own brand. I never felt it would be worth it if I couldn’t add something that really carried the rest of my experience in terms of material and detail.
How did you meet Stefano Marinto?
About three years ago, a friend of mine, Samuel Ross, introduced me to Stefano Martinetto. He wanted to talk to me about doing a brand, something I’ve already told him I’m not interested in going through. Samuel said, “Just eat breakfast with him and just listen to him.” And what he cleverly understood was that thinking about materials would be very important. And he came to me with this idea to create a brand that uses mostly dead materials and fabrics.
In particular, how did you and Stephen approach using the potato material?
Any brand you can think of ends up sitting on too much fabric and unused materials. Sometimes they are resold as junk. So the first collection I made uses the denim moustache, which is woven in Japan. Steel toe hats change patina and color – this goes against many of the ways fashion thinks about itself, which is supposed to be unchanging. Especially in luxury, the basic idea is that things should be the way you see them on the shelf forever, which is an impossible task. We’re really thinking about embracing that idea of patina and wear, the longer you have these things, the better they look.
And that’s something to do with work clothes, isn’t it? The idea that the garment changes because it is used for a purpose. But what I find interesting about the ubiquitous workwear is that it no longer has the same utility for everyone who wears it. Where does your interest in workwear come from?
The materials and the first set mostly depends on what you can imagine work clothes. But future collections are not like that. There’s outerwear, the whole collection I work on is based on gardening. Even I am looking fit. So it started that way because there is a use case for these things. I literally wear steel toe boots in my studio. In terms of denim, it was more about the material. We got all this amazing Japanese denim.
What is the difference between making art and making clothes?
Whatever the artwork is, it’s made to last forever. And I think clothes are not designed that way, they are not designed for age. So in the design of this dress, there are certain symbols placed in the hardware. The hardware has a natural patina finish, but (unlike the toe cap) doesn’t sustain tarnishing to any noticeable degree. All buttons are specially designed to be removable for the jacket; If you decide you don’t want the buttons to stain the fabric over time, you can remove them. If you wear them, they will leave a nice mark around the edge of the button when the clothes are washed. But the buttons don’t rust so they don’t stain the fabric. Mobility is designed for ease of care, it is easy to protect the hardware in the washing machines and to recycle the clothes at the end of life.
I also leave a lot of variation on things like brands on clothes. Not silk screens. They are actually printed by hand on the fabric in the factory. So there is a difference in that. And one of the biggest challenges for this brand in general was convincing the factories, not the factories, that this is what I want.
You described things as a manifesto for change, what do you mean?
One of the things we’re looking into is developing a system where people buy clothes that they eventually want to get rid of and come back to us and make new clothes. They can also be redecorating items. So if the jacket comes back and has a tear in it, or even if it needs to go through the studio cycle again, it can find something to make it more modern. We are thinking about this in like 5, 10 years.
Why start a brand to begin with? I think an artist is a brand in and of itself today, and you can only release stuff under that brand.
I have a partner. I’m not a designer, so I hired several amazing designers who helped me figure out some shapes and forms and went into the material depth with me. Sometimes, as an artist, it’s helpful to have something that isn’t under your own name. It looks like you can create one in this other box that doesn’t apply directly to the job.
Can you tell me about how you got started with Life of Things IV?
I was thinking of some sort of lookbook that we could give people that teased the brand’s ethos and way of thinking. I have small children, and you know those children’s books that have flat pages like cardboard pages? This is how the book is designed. It’s only eight pages, so it’s 16 spread out, and the book is actually kind of like a thick thing. The idea is that for every chapter we release, a book will come along.
They also hosted a series of dinner parties around things.
It was about bringing people together and introducing them to things. The first was the last fall before the brand was even known, and it was to get a lot of friends in an informal environment for their reviews. I put out all my original drawings for stuff, and we had a couple of samples with stuff out there to get a sense of what people’s take on it was, and also looking for their notes and ideas.
Did you use some of the things you heard at those dinners or events?
A lot of interesting things that came out of those dinners were about graphics or photography and how to communicate the brand. We worked with this great photographer who I met at dinner with a friend of mine, Joshua Woods, who shot the first campaign. I didn’t know him before. It’s one of those things where you build this network because I’ve never really worked in that space before. Like when I worked for Dior, I didn’t work on a photo campaign or anything like that.
What do the future chapters of Things for Life look like?
It is very broad, but for the next chapter, there is a little more color in it. One of the things about deadstock is that the weave varies from piece to piece. There is a camo pattern based around the logo I mentioned. Usually when I make drawings, I make preparatory drawings for the sculpture, notes. So I draw a picture of the work I want to create. And I have notes written around what’s inside, this irregularly shaped thought bubble. That’s where the Things logo came from. So I developed a vaguely camo-esque design that was used a lot in the second chapter. And then some really, I would say, iconic shaped jackets and things like that will come out early next year as well.
Are you thinking of branching out into fashion?
I could see there were some small furniture and things like that. But who knows where it will go? It’s another place to play.
You can get CH.001 from the stocks below.
Machine-A London
Head coverings
IT Hong Kong
Feeling
Simple characters Mykonos
Maxfield L.A
KITH LA & NYC
Machine-A Shanghai – from October
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