Inventive, enigmatic, and supremely creative, Stephen
Sprouse made art and clothing that captured the mood of
the eighties. One of the first American designers to mix
graffiti and a punk aesthetic with fashion, Sprouse
manipulated conventional notions of style, and his
unique sensibility has inspired designers from John
Galliano to Raf Simmons to Marc Jacobs. Sprouse's career
started in the late seventies, when, after working for
Halston, he migrated to a warehouse on the Bowery and
started making outfits for his neighbor, Debbie Harry.
The fashion world quickly embraced his innovative,
culturally relevant sensibility and downtown edge. But
Sprouse's inability to compromise his artistic vision
for the rigid fashion business compromised his
commercial success. The Padilhas possess the largest
private collection of Sprouse's work, and were given
exclusive access to his archives by his family for this
project. They also obtained never-before-published
images from photographers such as Steven Meisel, Bob
Gruen, and Mert and Marcus. The book features a foreword
by the novelist Tama Janowitz, one of Sprouse's closest
friends. The release of this book coincides with a
retrospective at Deitch Projects. The book will be
available with four different jackets, each featuring a
different Day-Glo color, an homage to Sprouse's iconic
album cover for Debbie Harry's Rockbird. |
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