Rob Pruitt’s Gradients Go High Fashion for J Brand Jeans

Roll your eyes all you want, but there’s a certain crowd that will never tire of a good art-fashion collaboration. That crowd tends to score much of their hipper-than-thou duds at Barneys, and so the luxury retailer, in partnership with Leitzes & Co., has tapped artist Rob Pruitt and denim powerhouse J Brand to create a line of jeans and jackets emblazoned with Pruitt’s signature rainbow gradients. And, yes, they look really cool.

The iconic gradient paintings have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, and have come to be regarded as one of Pruitt’s trademarks—along with pandas and free coke buffets. The J Brand collection will feature women’s skinny jeans in four unique dégradé color schemes, along with two men’s styles and a men’s denim jacket (that could easily be unisex), hand-painted by the artist in his Brooklyn studio.

Rob Pruitt gradient paintings at the de la Cruz Collection. At left: Felix González-Torres Untitled (Portrait of Dad) (1991). At right: Rob Pruitt Us (2013).
Photo: Courtesy the de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami, Florida.

“Working with Rob made us think outside of the box and try things that have never have been done before. We feel this collaboration adds to a whole new perspective of denim, reinventing denim, outside of indigo. We are excited to see the influence of his degrade onto our product, and looking forward to seeing people wearing it,” said J Brand president Lynne Koplin. And given the popularity of both novelty denim and artist-designed merchandise, wear it they will.

For those old-fashioned purists who would prefer to view Pruitt’s artwork on gallery walls, Gavin Brown’s enterprise is currently displaying his solo show, “Multiple Personalities,” which closes on October 25. Better hurry before those paintings come to a pair of skinny legs near you—the collection drops at select Barneys and on Barneys.com on October 15.