S.R. Studio. LA. CA., artist Sterling Ruby fashion collection, has created an installation featuring the brand’s ‘Unique’ tier of pieces, available now on srstudio.com and at Dover Street Market Los Angeles exclusively.
In an effort to preserve a type of intimacy found in his art, the Unique looks are one-offs designed and realized by Sterling Ruby – simultaneously garments and artworks. Unique collection pieces each include a tag with a signature, date, and inventory number entered into the same database used for tracking Sterling Ruby’s artwork catalogue.
For the first time, S.R. Studio. LA. CA. Unique pieces will be available to view in person at Dover Street Market in Los Angeles. Previously available only on srstudio.com, the artwork-garments are showcased in a new installation at the retailer.
Using a hanging technique reminiscent of Ruby’s mobile sculptures, a polished aluminum armature displays Unique garments next to tools cast in aluminum, creating a sort of 3D textile and sculptural collage. The installation is relational and based in themes explored throughout Ruby’s work; an aluminum axe is suspended next to the book cover of Hannah Ardent’s “On Violence,” while a cast bleach bottle hangs beside fabric hand treated with such material. With pieces hanging flat like artworks, yet exposing neck holes which act as signifiers of the body, the method of display highlights the fluidity of Unique looks to exist both at once as art and clothing.
The nature of Unique allows each garment a sense of immediacy, bypassing the traditional processes and timelines of clothing production. The most recently created pieces see autobiographical references including Death Angel band t-shirts long favored by the artist, set against motifs from Ruby’s art universe like caves, candles, and werewolves, and covers of his favorite books: Audre Lorde’s “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House,” George Orwell’s “Notes on Nationalism,” Jack Kerouac’s “Piers of the Homeless Night,” and James Baldwin’s “Dark Days,” among others.
The Unique tier coexists amongst the line’s three other distinct identities: S.R. Studio. LA. CA.., ED. 50, and Soto. These lines are mixed together, instinctively, democratically, without hierarchy. S.R. Studio. LA. CA.. Unique pieces are available now on srstudio.com and at Dover Street Market Los Angeles.
