“Greg [Chait] did all these feathers on scarves so I paired one with a Louis Vuitton skirt,” said Katherine Ross at a dinner introducing new Wear LACMA designs that was held at Ray’s & Stark Bar in Los Angeles on Tuesday, November 19. The event, hosted by Ross and Holli Rogers of Net-a-Porter, served as an unveiling for the scarves and t-shirts created by Greg Chait of The Elder Statesman and a gold necklace dreamed up by Jennifer Meyer Maguire. Ross said she’d had the leather skirt with tiers of fringe for years and was inspired to wear it by the feathers in Chait’s cashmere scarf. “Last season Greg did the small scarves and I wore them as headbands, so this time I also bought them for my friends,” said Ross. Los Angeles-based designers who have created pieces for the Wear LACMA program use a work of art in the museum’s permanent collection as inspiration for a an item of clothing or an accessory they devise, and Chait cited one of the museum’s Peruvian textiles as the basis for a feather shawl and scarf he designed.

Meyer Maguire looked to a more recent work for inspiration. As LACMA director Michael Govan noted, the jewelry designer broke the rules to create her gold necklace based on an Ed Ruscha painting, Made in California, 1971, also in the museum’s permanent collection. Govan explained, “The idea was to use old art. But Jennifer saw the painting by Ed and asked him if she could use it.” The artist agreed to her request, and the piece joined the Wear LACMA line on sale at the LACMA Store and online at Net-a-Porter. And all is well that ends well because, as Govan noted, “Ed told me he liked it the other day.”

 

Pictured: Michael Govan and Katherine Ross at a Net-A-Porter dinner for WearLACMA
Photo by Stefanie Keenan

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