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Every year since 2007, the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art in Greece has asked one artist to pick five new articles of clothing that best represent the year. The pieces join Deste's permanent collection, and the artist creates a new work based on the ideas they inspire. It's a fashion-art collaboration that goes far beyond printing iconic images on the side of a handbag, and now you can see the results in the windows of Barneys on Madison Avenue.
Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman asked the artists to reinterpret their pieces, but he didn't try to make them any more commercial. So while some of the work does include clothing, none of it promotes current Barneys merchandise. The store considers the exhibit "a public art event," rather than just a mere window display. As Bridget Foley pointed out in Women's Wear Daily last week, the show underscores how much the company's aesthetic has changed in recent years. There's nothing kitschy about this exhibit: It's just serious art, harnessed in the service of serious fashion.
· Window-Watching at Barneys [WWD, subscription req'd]
· destefashioncollection: Art Meets Fashion At Barneys New York [The Window]