After all, what’s art without commerce? But amidst the sprightly websites (Vuitton’s Welovesprouse.com and Thestephensprousebook.com), various Day-Glo book jackets and Iggy Pop crucifixion portraits, two questions are paramount: Why is now the time to celebrate the life and work of Stephen Sprouse? And in a career characterized by originality and disaster, how will Sprouse be remembered? Brothers Roger and Mauricio Padilha, the authors of The Stephen Sprouse Book believe that today’s increasingly flamboyant, color-driven visual culture stems in part from Sprouse’s signature style, which synthesized rock ’n’ roll, art and fashion into a glitzy ostentation that defined the 1980s.
Known for his uncompromised vision— which led to multiple bankruptcies— Sprouse covered silk pants in Pop Art, splayed backwards graffiti across sequined dresses and had fake blood drip from the lips of his runway models.
“The time is perfect right now,” says Roger, who co-founded fashion-centric public relations firm, MAO PR with his brother. “If you look at what’s happening in fashion, in advertising—it’s Stephen’s moment.”
Mauricio is quick to provide examples, mentioning Apple’s iPod and iTunes ads where silhouetted figures dance to rock songs against fluorescent-colored backgrounds. “It’s graphic. Bright colors. People dancing around,” he explains. “That stems from Stephen Sprouse.That’s what he was inspired by.” So too, Roger mentions the extremes that are currently emerging in fashion: shorterthan-short skirts, high-rise heels, super intense colors and technology-oriented materials.
“Fashion’s getting so extreme,” he says. “And Stephen was all about extremes.” The Padilha brothers obsessed over Sprouse’s designs as children, getting their first glimpse of his work on TV in 1984. Sprouse had established himself as a remarkable out-of-the-box design talent by then, tasting early success in the late ’70s. Over a 30-year career he produced top-selling, critically acclaimed collections, designed outfits for Deborah Harry, Mick Jagger and David Bowie and famously collaborated with Marc Jacobs in 2000 to create the graffiti-covered Louis Vuitton luggage—a legendary collection that saw the peak of Sprouse’s commercial success.
Roger explains that he and his brother had planned to do a biographical book on Sprouse since his death in 2004 (Sprouse was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003 and succumbed to heart failure the following year), but it hadn’t initially been planned in line with the Deitch exhibition. Once the creators of the two projects became aware of their common subject however, a partnership of sorts followed. Enter Louis Vuitton.
“It was because of the book and the exhibition that Louis Vuitton decided to do a collaborative collection between Stephen’s previous work and Marc Jacobs’ new release,” Roger explains. “It all came together and we felt that it would be in everyone’s best interests to work together.”
Makes sense doesn’t it? But it’s also worth considering whether the synchronous honors are in the best interests of Stephen Sprouse himself, for a legacy hangs in the balance.
The curator and designer of Deitch Projects’ Rock on Mars exhibition, Jamie Boud chuckles at the thought of why Sprouse seems to be such hot property again, garnering the interest of fashionistas, gallerists and an iconic luxury fashion brand. In fact, he seems slightly befuddled as he considers how the Deitch exhibition came together when it did. “I can’t tell you,” he says, laughing. “I’ve been asked that a few times but I just answer ‘why not?’” Sprouse’s longtime collaborator, Boud curated the exhibition in line with the singular Sprouse vision and Rock on Mars features his designer outfits, paintings, sketches as well as video elements and a Polaroid wall. “The whole gallery has been taken over by his aesthetic,” Boud explains. “That’s what’s really exciting to me, not so much single pieces, as much as walking into his world.”
Boud says he has “mixed feelings” about the involvement of Louis Vuitton and one can understand why. Despite the monetary successes of Sprouse’s collaboration with the brand in 2000, the experience was not an entirely positive one and Sprouse came away knowing that he couldn’t work within the confines of a corporate scenario.
Sprouse fell in and out of favor with the fashion industry at large as well. Boud explains that Sprouse wasn’t concerned with other designers or fashion trends—it was more that commercial and cultural forces beyond his control determined his popularity.
“It wasn’t so much he went away and came back, as much as the rest of the world leaving him and then rediscovering him,” explains Boud. “Don’t call it a comeback, you know?” So with an exhibition, a book and a Louis Vuitton range in tow, how will Sprouse be remembered? Roger Padilha says Sprouse is currently known as a fashion designer but that the combined projects will help redefine his impact. “I think people are going to remember him as an artist who had his own signature much in the way we think of Keith Haring or Andy Warhol,” he says. “And it’s not going to be so much his legacy in the fashion world; it’s going to be his legacy, period.”
So too, Boud believes that the collaborations will help people see the bigger picture of Stephen Sprouse, mentioning that his main concern is whether Sprouse becomes a footnote on Marc Jacobs’ career.
“To me that’s what his fashion always was: it transcended fashion. It was art,” he says. “Hopefully all this stuff will have some lasting impact.”
Rock on Mars Jan.9 through Feb.28,Deitch Project,18 Wooster St.(betw.Grand & Canal Sts.),212-343-7300; Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6, FREE.
