Bailey teamed up with East London Design studio The Bleach Room to create a T-shirt range based on his most infamous artwork. You can buy the shirts from Selfridges.com now for a rather reasonable $115.
Although the designs took over a year to perfect, Bailey characteristically downplayed the collaboration by stating that “it’s not fashion, it’s just a T-shirt.” The images include portraits of Grace Jones, Boy George and Johnny Depp that pretty much no one would be able to afford to hang on her walls, so this is the perfect way to own a Bailey work of art.
As the 76-year-old artist said himself at the launch this week, “Not everyone can afford a print [so] it’s a nice way of making [my work available] for everyone… I think it’s quite nice that everyone can have a T-shirt that has an image with some history behind it.”
If you want to go for the full Bailey experience, you can wear your T-shirt to his upcoming exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery in London. The photographer has partnered with Hugo Boss to showcase over 250 portraits personally selected by him, and with a career spanning over 50 years that must have been one mean feat. The images range from a dishevelled Kate Moss to a haunting image of the artist Francis Bacon, so you can take in a world of faces while trying to spot the ones on the T-shirts.
Bailey’s Stardust runs from 6 February – 1 June, http://www.npg.org.uk/
