A First Look at Duro Olowu`s New Pop-Up Art Show

A First Look at Duro Olowu’s New Pop-Up Art Show|
By Marjon Carlos| Vogue | July 2014 A First Look at Duro Olowu's New Pop-Up Art Show
"More Material"
by Marjon Carlos
Photographed by Emily Johnston
Although he shies away from the term curator, London-based designer Duro Olowu stands more
comfortably on the border of art and fashion than many of his peers; something that seems all the more
apparent with the launch of his second group show and pop-up boutique at Salon 94 Bowery tonight.
Titled “More Materials,” the installation is just that: a continuation of the work he started back in
February 2012 with his first pop-up shop and exhibit during New York Fashion Week, an eye-catching
collection of objet trouvés from the designer’s personal archive. “You grow, and like most things, you find
more things, you discover more things. But what is really relevant now is just this concept of fashion, art,
and objects, and really showing how women are perceived,” he says. “And how they perceive themselves.”
Tapping into the work of artists who often use fashion to explore self-identity, Olowu calls upon some of
his favorite modern artists like fashion photographer Juergen Teller, sculptor Rachel Feinstein and
creative polymath Hassan Hajjaj to articulate his vision. Placed alongside dizzying patterned capes from
Olowu’s spring 2014 collection, Teller’s raw images of model-of-the-moment Kinee Diouf, Feinstein’s
original sculptures, and Hajjaj’s never-before-seen video of a woman reclining, which greets you at the
door. This combination of art follows the patchwork energies of Olowu’s own designs, where seemingly
mismatched prints live together in harmony. “That link with clothing and fashion is still very strong with
this show. You look left and you can feel the emphasis on textile and clothing and jewelry and objects, and
at the same time you are not overwhelmed by the art in the show,” he says. “It all seems to form one huge
cabinet of curiosities.”
Show-goers can shop the wares of Olowu’s current and past collections, while connecting with the work
that inspired them like Antonio Lopez’s sensual instamatics of Grace Jones and Pat Cleveland, or a
rare collection of Nigerian Yoruba “bubas.” And while “More Materials” is a selling show, Olowu and the
artists involved don’t see it as a big advertisement; it’s much more about mutual admiration than anything
else—an admiration Olowu understands all too well: the designer is married to Studio Museum of
Harlem’s director Thelma Golden, after all. And with the new exhibition he’s putting the wide-ranging
artistic sensibilities of the stylish women who wear his clothes into the frame. “The woman changes, she
gets older, she gets wiser, more comfortable with herself,” he says “and that has to permeate the show.”