Following yesterday’s news that Isabel Marant, a perennial victim of high street copying, is creating a capsule collection for H&M, here’s another jarring fashion collaboration: The Paris Review, the beloved New York literary journal, is commemorating its 60th anniversary by partnering with Orlebar Brown on a limited-edition range of swimming trunks available exclusively at Barneys. (The British swimwear label has previously collaborated with Monocle, the globetrotting lifestyle magazine.)
The swim trunks (pictured right) feature iconic Paris Review cover illustrations and retail for $320, eight times the price of a one-year subscription to the quarterly publication.
With a circulation of just 16,000 (as of 2010), it’s not surprising that The Paris Review would want to subsidize its operations and promote the magazine to a much sought-after market (boys with a $320 look-literary-at-the-beach budget), but still. I’m not sure that The Paris Review can be both one of the last remaining bastions of a once-vibrant American literary culture and a heritage brand.
Or as Barneys put it:
Even better than reading @parisreview at the beach: WEARING @parisreview at the beach. bit.ly/15XrzM1 cc @orlebarbrown
— Barneys New York (@BarneysNY) June 12, 2013
You can shop it here.
