The newest designer collaborations with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Wear LACMA initiative were officially launched on Wednesday, with a soirée at the museum shop.

Wear LACMA is a project of the museum’s Director’s Circle. Each season, new Los Angeles-based designers create clothing and accessories inspired by an artwork in LACMA’s collection (see LACMA Announces Multi-Million Deal With Hyundai).

A coat by dosa based on paintings by Gloria Stuart.
Photo: courtesy of dosa archive via LACMA

The spring 2015 designers are Christina Kim of dosa, who chose Gloria Stuart’s painting Watts Towers I, and Nina Garduno of FREECITY, who found inspiration in the bleeding heart of Saint Augustine, from a 17th-century painting by Philippe de Champaigne (see François-Henri Pinault Says Fashion Should Not Exploit Art for So-Called “Respectability”).

The 17th-century painting St. Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne was the inspiration behind FREECITY’s T-shirts and hoodies for Wear LACMA.
Photo via: LACMA.

Kim’s designs incorporate her source of inspiration with prints of the painting on breezy, organic cotton shirts, skirts, and totes. Garduno’s T-shirts and hoodies take a more conceptual approach, mirroring the light of the bleeding heart, but adding phrases like “Art Alive” and “Artists Wanted,” so patrons can literally wear their hearts on their sleeves.

One of FREECITY’s T-shirt designs for Wear LACMA.
Photo: courtesy of FREECITY via LACMA

All proceeds go directly back to the museum. And sticking to FREECITY’s usual model of supporting a different local cause with each T-shirt design, the “Art Alive” tees will support the conservation of Chris Burden’s Urban Light sculpture, which stands outside the entrance to the museum (see See Chris Burden’s Gravity Defying Final Artwork at LACMA).

The limited-edition designs are available now at the LACMA store and online.