Fashion, Hirst says, “is art that you can wear.” It’s what he liked about the prospect of working with Barrie. “I come from a museum world where people go ‘don’t touch it.’ In the art world, we all believe that art is a sacred thing,” But fashion, because it’s wearable and has a practical use, rarely undergoes the same canonization. “But, in a way, the reason why I wear it is because it’s already art,” Hirst says.
Hirst says he also enjoys the opportunity to work on something with an agreed end use. “In art, I was taught that there are no limits,” but in fashion one has to negotiate between the garment and the body, and functionality becomes paramount. “But art is limited too. With sculpture, your biggest limitation is gravity and you’re going to struggle a lot to get around that one,” he laughs.
He recalls once making surfboards for a charity, imagining them in use by a surfer as they crest a wave. “And then you see it in a frame on a wall,” he says. “I really want to make sure that people wear this and don’t put it into dusty storage.”
Collabs, Hirst says, are not an easy fit to achieve. “You can see some amazing brands come together and make real crap,” he says, and his career boasts a number of notable partnerships that never came to be. For example, Hirst once came close to working with Hussein Chalayan, a fashion designer whose work is largely considered museum-worthy.
“The first thing he said was that it could not be wearable,” Hirst recalls. It was an immediate turn off for the artist. “That’s where I live,” he says. “I wanted to meet in the middle, and he wouldn’t. He wanted to come right over to my side.”
