In New York, New York, the city that never sleeps, creativity swarms through its pulsing streets, humming along with the sound of underground trains speeding deep into the city’s arteries. Its reputation precedes itself. Down below, in the heart of Gotham, in the endless night of the subway, imprints of restless imaginations line the make-shift canvases of tunnels. On them lay a story of origin, the chronicles of a young art form that eschewed the stuffiness of portrait painters and marble sculptors—and helped shape contemporary art into the scene it is today. Be it the squiggles of Haring or the crowns of Basquiat, Graffiti, that once banned art form, opened pathways for day-walking New Yorkers, artists by moonlight, becoming a trademark of the city equally as much as the white-walled galleries that ironically housed those very same artists years later.
Among them was Futura 2000, along with his atomized swirls. Past the font-based styles popular then, in the ‘80s, he first made a splash on the scene with a futuristic design language inflected with abstract elements. Now, after the clouds of aerosol have settled and creative institutions have embraced the medium, the “art for the sake of art” energy that characterized his work persists. And though he’s hung up his boots (or, er, kicks) from his days of graffiti, Futura 2000 has yet to quell that yearning for self-discovery through those portal doors of artistic expression, the latest opening to the studio of Marc Jacobs.
Marc Jacobs—both the man and the brand—understands the thrill of breaking a few rules in the name of the craft. And while Marc’s tag waned from the ammonia rush of spray paint and waxed more the seductive sparkle of sequin, the indelible marks his creations leave on the city mirror those of Futura 2000. With a mischievous verve and a knack for prophesying fashion’s next big thing, he turns conventions on their heads with riveting designs, sometimes stitching in them a wink or two. Some people get it, others don’t, for truly riveting expressions never leave neutrality in their wake (see: Perry Ellis à la grunge circa Spring 1993).
On the horizon of the house’s 40th anniversary, the enfant terrible of American fashion and the Graffiti guru-turned-contemporary art mainstay collaborated on a collection spanning leather goods, accessories, and ready-to-wear apparel. From the graffiti-doused denim to reimagined renditions of “The Tote Bag,” spray painted to perfection, everything in the collection pulses with the daring cheek of both pop culture pioneers.
Looking back, Futura can’t remember exactly when his career zoomed past the bumps and pitfalls of following one’s craft in a pure state of creative intuition and toward the fast track to commercial success, capitalizing on that intuition. He just blinked, and his route switched tracks in that proverbial New York minute. “Trust me, I try [to understand] every day. I’m a person of serious analysis. I’m all about looking at things,” he reflects. “How did I do it? This is the most improbable fucking thing ever in the sense that I never saw this coming. I’m a visionary. I have an imagination. I can imagine,” he notes. But despite his creativity and his imagination, there was no “driver” after all, as he put it. “The driver was just, and this is what’s incredible, being myself, just doing what I do.”
To travel deeper into the twisty tunnels of Futura’s mind, keep scrolling for an exclusive Q&A that further details his evolution through decades of boundary-traversing, odd-defying artistry.
Returning to your past a bit, what is your earliest artistic memory?
I always think back to the 1964 New York World's Fair. As a nine or ten-year-old kid, my family took me. It was sprawling. Every culture of every planet was represented. And that opened my eyes to the world as someone who just lived on a block in New York City. Yet, somehow, that was a visionary point for me.
Building off that, how has your perspective of your craft changed from the beginning of your career?
Just that it's a learning process—all of it. I never want to be so comfortable that I’m complacent and start thinking, "Oh, I don't have to." No. Fuck that. I'm always challenged to do something better or more creative-minded in terms of how I see stuff and the ideas I may have. Because, in a way, I could never explain my painting to you. It's abstract. It just takes on its own life. I'm very much motivated by that and I want to continually evolve in the process.
Fresh off of working on this capsule collection closely with Marc, how has the brand Marc Jacobs shifted the culture at large, in your opinion?
Culture is constantly changing. I feel the moment we're in now, a lot of the [creative] community is less driven by physical interaction, so in working with Marc and his team, I felt a sense of realness. I can appreciate the authenticity of a person like Marc and how he opened another doorway for me.
And what was your relationship with Marc like before this collaboration?
None, really; it was always love and appreciation, though. Only just to say, "Hi Marc," whenever we’d see each other out. Of course, there were moments like that in the past 40 years because if you were a brand that had a shop back in the late 90s, chances are I'd probably walk by.
In that case, what most excites you about the Futura x Marc Jacobs collection?
It really goes beyond the product. My interest is to build a relationship with Marc, something that isn’t just professional. But I just want to know him, have food, and hang with him. I don’t operate off of "What can I get from this." I just see too much of that.
In your opinion, what’s the most valuable resource an artist can have?
An imagination. Where else are you going to get your ideas from?
Discover shop the Futura x Marc Jacobs capsule collection here.
