H&M Peddling Jeff Koons-Branded Clutches

Koons clutch. Photo courtesy of H&M
H&M's new 5th Avenue flagship. Photo courtesy of H&M

H&M’s new 5th Avenue flagship with Jeff Koons mural.
Photo courtesy of H&M.

Fast-fashion retailer H&M and king of mass-appeal art Jeff Koons are joining forces to bring you what will likely become this summer’s most irksomely ubiquitous handbag. According to a press release from the fashion giant, the collaboration comes in dual celebration of H&M’s new flagship store on 5th Avenue and, of course, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Jeff Koons: A Retrospective.”

In addition to featuring an enormous image of a yellow balloon dog on its exterior, the new flagship (and select other stores around the country) will be hawking black leather bags festooned with an image of the iconic chromed canine. Unfortunately they are not, as the artnet News staff initially imagined when learning of this partnership, handbags in the actual shape of balloon dogs. Which, we now realize, would probably be prohibitively expensive to produce (but way less annoying to look at, maybe).

Koons clutch. Photo courtesy of H&M

A Koons clutch.
Photo courtesy of H&M.

While Daniel Kulle, the US president of H&M, waxes poetic about the partnership, stating, “It is such an honor to have the vision of this prolific and world renowned artist on display and as the storefront façade of the new H&M Fifth Avenue,” it seems clear that this is a less impressive art star-fashion house partnership than the Takashi Murakami-Louis Vuitton handbags, to say nothing of the one-time-only George Condo-Kanye West handbag collaboration.

 

 


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