Levi’s marked the 20th anniversary of Andy Warhol’s death last week with a runway show for its Warhol Factory X Levi’s fall collection.
The show was held Thursday at the Gershwin Hotel in New York as part of a weeklong tribute to Warhol called “Factory Crazy — A Week of Warhol.” Levi’s launched the Warhol Factory X line in spring 2006, citing Warhol’s influence as an artist and a committed wearer of Levi’s 501s.
The buzz surrounding Warhol has grown significantly in recent months, in part due to the anniversary of his death, but even more to the release of “Factory Girl” in early February. Sienna Miller plays the role of muse Edie Sedgwick and Guy Pearce portrays Warhol.
“I feel we’re at a flash point with Warhol,” said Adrian Nyman, creative director and designer of the line. “There is a lot of excitement around Warhol right now, which is great.”
For the line’s fourth collection, Nyman said he looked to draw inspiration from Warhol’s lesser-known work. The line’s design was meant to reflect a merging of Warhol and Americana, according to Nyman.
“I wanted to do something in the spirit of Warhol, but not something in the literal sense, like printing something on a T-shirt,” said Nyman, adding he did research for the line at the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which has a licensing agreement with Levi’s.
There was also an effort to move away from more overt references to Warhol, his image and his most recognizable work.
“With the first line, we wanted to make a bolder iconic statement,” said Nyman. “For this line, I used work of the period, early Eighties, which is far more obscure and out of the public eye.”
The collection of 40 pieces is sold at Barneys New York, Fred Segal and American Rag.