Diesel fashion collaboration 2018
I was contacted by the Italian fashion brand, Diesel in the summer of 2017. They has seen a pair of my gloves with several original and vintage inspired tattoo designs and wondered if I could recreate them for a line of clothing to be released internationally in 2018. Here are some thoughts I had at the time about the collaboration:
"I work first and foremost intuitively. I like to approach the imagery and materials I use from this internal dialog that arises to a level of compulsion that creates the art. It’s like a nagging or longing or obsessive loop that says “make this” and I can’t feel settled until it’s made. It doesn’t arrive from any school of thought. It can come in dreams or waking visions that just pop into my mind. I am a sponge and I absorb influences from things I love. I love tattoo imagery, folk art and DIY fashion. I listen to music that is raw. That can be anything from punk to folk to rap. If it breaks rules- and feels like it comes from the heart than I am drawn to it.
When Diesel first approached me to collaborate on a collection I was thrilled. Diesel has been a company that I feel embodies the renegade fashion aesthetic I am drawn to. I hope that the powerful imagery I have created for this collection sets people free- free of the conventions and rules and boundaries. I hope that the level of freedom and expression that I put into the tattoo inspired imagery transfers to the wearer and those who see it. I want it to be more than mere decoration.
People can be so afraid to try new things or live outside of their comfort zone. They think they will be alone or shamed. But by living out honest individual expression in fashion we actual form closer bonds with each other. I found so much solace in high school when I was brave enough to shave my head and wear black two things that were very very uncool in Kansas circa 1989- but that is who I wanted to be. I didn’t feel like everybody else and I was tired of lying about it with my fashion. When I finally expressed myself it drew others to me that were on that same wavelength. I was able to find people who felt and thought like me. Fashion has a way of bringing people together and I am deeply honored to be a part of that."-Ellen Greene 2018
