AMIRI
x WES LANG
Amiri x Wes Lang
Mike Amiri finds inspiration for his Men’s Fall 2022 collection and debut runway show close to home, amongst the creative spirit of Los Angeles’ Arts District, and more specifically in his friendship with contemporary artist Lang, whose studio neighbors AMIRI’s. Guided by the house’s tenet that artistic expression needs to be uninhibited and intuitive, the collection unites design house and art studio to explore a dialogue between the two contemporaries.
Mike and Wes have regularly visited each other’s studios without any collaborative context. However, as conversations between the duo naturally veered towards their respective crafts, the exchanging of ideas and aesthetics evolves organically into a truly cooperative and cross-discipline process that informed the season’s art direction.
The collection engages as much with the process as the final product. Inspired by watching Lang in his studio – the live connection between the gesture, the mark and the image; accumulating lines and matter, layering, re-approaching – Mike Amiri echoes this process, treating the garment as a mixed media canvas and running on instinct; without boundaries.
Directed by this season’s narrative, accents of pink, blue and red are woven directly from selected Wes Lang artworks into the color palette, mixing the artist’s compositions with AMIRI’s rich, earthy signatures: deep hues of birch, green, demitasse brown, grey and black.
Invited into Wes Lang’s archive, Mike saw the opportunity to not simply translate the artworks but evolve them through his own artistry – again, applying layers; both physically and figuratively to create new. Therefore, graphics are authentically developed from life-size artworks to become limited-edition compositions within a vibrant, creative conversation.
An exploration of textile through art – central to both Wes and Mike’s practices – hand-painting, abstract jacquard, patchwork, and fabrication washes produce unique finishes, as soft, refined fabrics – chiffon, silk, cashmere, faux fur – are given strength through mixed-media graphics. Lang’s synonymous Grim Reapers, folk totems and scattered text elements are brought to life as abstract intarsia knitwear, hand embroidery and impasto brushstrokes that animate surfaces – in this, garments are crafted as fine art.
Both fascinated by notions of American folk, craft and artistry, this collection is a tale of two creators – two practices – harmonizing on parallel beats askew from the traditional route.
Mike Amiri finds inspiration for his Men’s Fall 2022 collection and debut runway show close to home, amongst the creative spirit of Los Angeles’ Arts District, and more specifically in his friendship with contemporary artist Lang, whose studio neighbors AMIRI’s. Guided by the house’s tenet that artistic expression needs to be uninhibited and intuitive, the collection unites design house and art studio to explore a dialogue between the two contemporaries.
Mike and Wes have regularly visited each other’s studios without any collaborative context. However, as conversations between the duo naturally veered towards their respective crafts, the exchanging of ideas and aesthetics evolves organically into a truly cooperative and cross-discipline process that informed the season’s art direction.
The collection engages as much with the process as the final product. Inspired by watching Lang in his studio – the live connection between the gesture, the mark and the image; accumulating lines and matter, layering, re-approaching – Mike Amiri echoes this process, treating the garment as a mixed media canvas and running on instinct; without boundaries.
Directed by this season’s narrative, accents of pink, blue and red are woven directly from selected Wes Lang artworks into the color palette, mixing the artist’s compositions with AMIRI’s rich, earthy signatures: deep hues of birch, green, demitasse brown, grey and black.
Invited into Wes Lang’s archive, Mike saw the opportunity to not simply translate the artworks but evolve them through his own artistry – again, applying layers; both physically and figuratively to create new. Therefore, graphics are authentically developed from life-size artworks to become limited-edition compositions within a vibrant, creative conversation.
An exploration of textile through art – central to both Wes and Mike’s practices – hand-painting, abstract jacquard, patchwork, and fabrication washes produce unique finishes, as soft, refined fabrics – chiffon, silk, cashmere, faux fur – are given strength through mixed-media graphics. Lang’s synonymous Grim Reapers, folk totems and scattered text elements are brought to life as abstract intarsia knitwear, hand embroidery and impasto brushstrokes that animate surfaces – in this, garments are crafted as fine art.
Both fascinated by notions of American folk, craft and artistry, this collection is a tale of two creators – two practices – harmonizing on parallel beats askew from the traditional route.
“We didn’t want to do the typical artist-designer thing. We wanted something more personal.”
"The resulting collection is full of pieces that are densely layered and deeply indebted not just to Lang’s work but to his process.”
WES LANG
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