10 Artist and Brand Collaborations We Wish Would Happen

Image via Complex Original

While Raf Simons and James Turrell have crossed paths before—Dior, with Simons at the helm, sponsored the Guggenheim Museum’s International Gala in 2013, at the time of Turrell’s phenomenal installation—there is more work to be done. Both Simons and Turrell, after all, are known for a use of intensely vibrant colors that is at once minimalist and dramatic. Imagine collection of glowing garments or an installation of Simons’ work within a Turrell Skyspace.

Robert Venturi, one of our greatest living postmodern architects first made his name arguing that everything is either a duck or a decorated shed, after which he built a series of decorated sheds. Nike has collaborated with everyone under the sun, it seems, yet none of their collaborators have managed to construct a giant Air Jordan. This isn’t rocket science, but it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be combining Venturi's use of strong lines and enormous numbers with Nike's dominant sportswear is genius.

As the art world’s foremost living depository of Internet pop culture, Jeanette Hayes has eagerly and successfully worked with just about every cool brand in the game. In the meantime, Moschino seems to have collaborated with any and everything—McDonald’s, Spongebob, John Wayne, Mondrian, Lichtenstein—regardless of whether the collaborator is even aware. Let’s get these two crazy kids together to create the series of meta-memes we deserve: Moschino-designed McDonald’s Happy Meals, a cartoon show about Larry Gagosian, and a Moschino capsule collection inspired by Hayes’s art history and pop culture mash-up that features DeMooning it-bags and Sailor Moon dresses.

When Harmony Korine directed an ad earlier this year for Dior, the most classic take on feminine glamour in existence, we scratched our heads a little, even if in the end his weird art video made us want to swing from a chandelier in a haute salon. Much more in Korine's wheelhouse is a partnership with streetwear label Black Scale. The dark brand's prolific collaborations pretty much never miss—think those black duck boots they made with Amongst Friends, its current work with Timberland, and the forthcoming adidas collection—and Korine's nightmarish aesthetic falls perfectly in line with Black Scale's shadowy look. After all, when's the last time you got to describe a T-shirt as “just really weird”?

What’s made Richard Prince so marvelous to watch over the past few years is that he makes the art of ruffling feathers so easy. His latest trick, for example, is a show of large-scale print-outs of other people’s Instagrams. It should be noted that it’s kinda old-man-gross, but it’s also hilarious in its utter simplicity. Similarly, Hedi Slimane initially confounded the fashion world with his cheapy rock-n-roll designs for Saint Laurent. They’ve been criticized, in a narrative worthy of Robert Altman’s fashion satire Ready to Wear, as too straightforward, and yet are readily snatched up by a rabid and increasing fan base. If Prince and Slimane ever bless us by joining forces, they could pull off one of the greatest coups in fashion history: an item-for-item replica of another designer’s former collection.

The vivid tapestry-print backdrops in Kehinde Wiley’s plays on epic and Old Master painting might simply seem like foils for his heroic subjects, but the patterns are rich with meaning, too. In the hands of psychedelic print maestro Dries Van Noten, Wiley’s mash-ups of Rococo brocades and bold African prints could result in a cerebral capsule of the fashion designer’s beloved bomber jackets.

In just a few seasons, Public School has become not simply a darling of the fashion industry but emblematic of New York City. The other fashion emblem of the city, of course, is the "I <3 New York" T-shirt, a phrase that text-based artist Jenny Holzer could play with to awesome effect. In addition, Holzer's geometric designs would look right at home emblazoned across Public School tees and other strong, masculine pieces.

Perhaps no two contemporary Western artists have more provocatively masked the human body through art than the designers at Maison Martin Margiela and Nick Cave. Covering its models with spangled masks, Margiela perpetuates its self-described “cult of impersonality,” building a mythic distance between the identity of its designers and the public that consumes the houses’ crafts (the recent hire of notorious showman John Galliano may challenge this practice). Cave, on the other hand, uses his “Soundsuits” to subvert judgment, disguising the wearer’s identity to bring the viewer a truer understanding of the being inside the suit. How these two takes on camouflage might intersect couldn’t be anything less than captivating.

The biggest brand in the art world working with the biggest brand in the fashion world: it’s incredible that this has never happened. Why aren’t we carrying balloon purses and wearing “Made in Heaven” lingerie?

Rachel Feinstein’s alabaster Rococo fantasies are the perfect point of inspiration for Givenchy designer Ricardo Tisci, who has put a glossy, Baroque frame around the concept of luxury in the 21st century. They share an eerie fairytale quality. Couldn’t you just picture them costuming an opera together?