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More than two decades after hisuntimely death, Andy Warhol’sbold imprint on fashion remainsstrong and vibrant. Then and now,The Warhol Look reflects theartist’s distinct blend of fashion,glamour and style. And no matterhow it’s framed—runway show,museum exhibition, window dis-play, or magazine illustration—Warhol’s work has a uniquely time-less appeal.

In the second half of the 20thcentury, The Warhol Look reignedsupreme. The artist’s influencecrossed genres, genders and gen-erations as his work grew moreexpansive and popular. It was con-troversial. It was iconic, yet con-temporary. And it constantlychanged to reflect the times...justas Warhol had hoped.

His diversity of styles (those hecreated through his art as well asembodied in appearance anddemeanor) still offer limitlessinspiration for today’s artisans.Pop Art has been “embraced anddisseminated by the fashion indus-try,” says art historian MarcoLivingstone.

Warhol’s bold color palette,

strongly influenced by his vastFiestaware collection, is consid-ered at the same time nostalgicand nouveau. And his glamoroussubjects—Marilyn Monroe,Elizabeth Taylor and EdieSedgwick to name but a few—still

fascinate and inspire designs onand off the runway.

According to Alice Mackrell’sbook Art and Fashion, designerYves Saint Laurent considered hisgreat friend Warhol to be “inspir-ing in everything he did.” For

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FASHION, GLAMOUR ANDSTYLE, THEN AND NOW. BY CALLY JAMIS VENNARE

theWarhollook

Warhol SelfPortrait, ninecanvases1966

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Betsey Johnson and other accom-plished designers, the WarholLook was manifested in dressesmade from paper, plastic andmetal. Other prominent examplesinclude Jean-Charles deCastelbajac’s vibrant dresses print-ed with Warhol motifs, GianniVersace’s “Marilyn Monroe” dressand Philip Treacy’s limited editioncollection of hats and bags featur-ing iconic Warhol images.

And at spring 2011 New YorkFashion Week, Diane vonFurstenberg channeled her veryown Andy Warhol portrait throughblaring pink lips on the otherwisefresh faces of her runway models.“At some point in the creativeprocess we pulled the picture,”noted von Furstenberg onstylelist.com. “I was young in the’70s and all these clothes remindme of my youth.”

Warhol’s influence reached fur-ther than fashion, to commercialand fine art, filmmaking, and pub-lishing. In fact, his Interview maga-zine is considered by many to bethe pinnacle of the artist’s obses-sion with style. “Interview was thefirst pop culture magazine,” saysPaige Powell, its former associatepublisher. “It set trends rather thanfollowed them. It was in themoment, not dated.” Not surpris-ingly, Warhol’s passion for celebri-ty led to his creation of Interview.“He wanted to be part of the city ina bigger way…and felt if he had afilm magazine, they would let himinto the premieres. And they did!”

Moreover, The Warhol Look (thecatalog supporting the 1997 to1999 exhibition of the same name)also established that “today’smerging of art and fashion is inlarge measure the legacy of Andy

Warhol” and that “fashionis the connective tissuejoining what previouslyappeared as disparateelements” in his work.

The Andy WarholMuseum, which organizedthe exhibition The WarholLook, is one of the most compre-hensive single-artist museums inthe world. At the end of their 15thanniversary celebration, the muse-um’s former director, TomSokolowski, and archival staff pro-vided the following examples togive us a deeper appreciation ofWarhol’s expansive footprint.

MODELS & MUSICIn the mid-1960s, Warhol featuredmany fashion models in his films.This was especially evident in hisseries of Screen Test portrait filmsthat included blonde “Baby Jane”Holzer (a sought-after fashionmodel among David Bailey and

other top photographers and thewoman who introduced Warhol toMick Jagger), leggy Donyale Luna(the first African-American super-model), icy Nico (a former modelturned musician with ties to BobDylan, Brian Jones, and ultimately,The Velvet Underground), and IvyNicholson (a top cover girl of theearly 1960s).

GLAMOUR & FILMIn 1965 Warhol made more than 10films (and numerous publicappearances) with Edie Sedgwick,the trendsetting tragic beauty whois still regarded as a fashion icon.The films include Beauty #2, PoorLittle Rich Girl, Face, Lupe andKitchen, among others.

DESIGNERS &TELEVISION

After years ofsocializing withfashion design-ers such as

Halston (whosecocktail dress of

light, slinky fabricwas printed with Warhol’s

bold, bright 1965 Flowers image),in 1979 Warhol produced a multi-part television series titledFashion, which focused on thework of the top designers of theday.

In later TV series in the mid-1980s, Andy Warhol’s TV and AndyWarhol’s Fifteen Minutes, Warholcontinued to present the work of(at the time) current designerssuch as Stephen Sprouse, whobased an entire season’s line onWarhol’s Camouflage paintings.

To learn more, visit The Warholin downtown Pittsburgh, or go towww.warhol.org.

The SouperDress, paper1966-67

TODAY’S MERGINGOF ART AND FASH-ION IS IN LARGEMEASURE THE

LEGACY OF ANDY WARHOL.

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