Does Fashion Owe a Debt to Robert Mapplethorpe?
José Criales-Unzueta, Vogue
February 2024
The life, work, and singular persona of Robert Mapplethorpe have been immortalized thoroughly over the years. There have been a handful of documentaries including Mapplethorpe: Look At the Pictures (2016), Black White + Gray (2007), and Dirty Pictures (2007); a biopic, Mapplethorpe (2018) starring Matt Smith in the titular role; and, of course, Patti Smith’s 2010 memoir Just Kids. There is also Mapplethorpe’s own oeuvre and his many self-portraits documenting his life and, eventually, his untimely illness—the photographer passed away at the age of 42 from AIDS-related complications.
There has also been the fashion. Mapplethorpe was an unsung style icon, building his distinctive style by embracing the culture he was often at the center of. He was close to a handful of fashion designers, including, perhaps surprisingly for the incognizant, Carolina Herrera, who famously designed a collection of velvet gold studded jackets for her fall 1989 show after his passing that same year. But beyond his close friendships, a variety of designers have found inspiration in his work, ranging from his erotic, fetish leatherwear imagery and his romantic and often melancholic floral still life photos to his jewelry, which he designed, made and oftentimes sold. […]