This year’s Wear LACMA initiative is tapping into two CFDA darlings: Jennifer Meyer and Greg Chait’s menswear label, The Elder Statesman. Both designers are fresh off of CFDA Award wins and are both familiar with the spirit and style of Los Angeles — they’re both based right here in our fair city. Working with LACMA, the designing duo got full use of the musem as inspiration for the latest Wear LACMA capsule collection. Available now at the LACMA store here in L.A. and, for the first time, online at Net-a-Porter, the collection is a fab way to give back to the museum and flex your art muscle without compromising your fashion instincts.
“I think LACMA is incredible, one of the best museums around,” said Jennifer Meyer. “It’s incredibly exciting that LACMA chooses to partner with designers rather than ‘artists,’ so to speak…combining those two worlds.”
With the museum’s entire permanent collection available for inspiration (Meyer and Chait both had alone time in the museum to explore and really dig deep in the archives), the jewelry designer — who can count celebs and fashion editos as fans and loyal clients — chose Ed Ruscha as her inspiration. She gravitated towards the artist’s work “Made in California” and created two nameplate necklaces bearing piece’s title in 18-karat yellow gold and 18-karat gold with white diamond pavé.
“Ed Ruscha is one of my favorite artists in the world and I think he’s one of the greatest Los Angeles-based artists of all time,” said Meyer. “And I was made in California, my kids were born and raised in California — it spoke to me in a big way.”
Chait took a different route with his choices. His work, which includes cashmere t-shirts and pashmina scarves (both unisex, both going right onto our Christmas lists) take inspiration from an array of the museum’s pieces including a 20th century quilt, an oil painting of a Chippewa chief and a Peruvian textile that dates back to the 15th century.
Meyer and Chait join an illustrious list of desginers that have also collaborated with Wear LACMA, including Gregory Parkinson and Johnson Hartig of Libertine (who had the honor of being the first to design for the initiative); Juan Carlos Obando, and NewbarK’s Maryam and Marjan Malakpour. All proceeds from the sales of Wear LACMA go to right back to the museum so that it can continue to inspire members of the community and new waves of fashion designers alike.
The Wear LACMA collection is available on the museum’s Web site and Net-a-Porter.com.
Images courtesy LACMA