Gen Art turns 30 and returns to NYFW with Consumer Events – WWD

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Gen Art will be back on-site during New York Fashion Week with four days of events and activations.

The fashion, multimedia and arts company has partnered with TMPL Fitness to create the first clothing line for the premier fitness center, which has five Manhattan locations. TMPL was founded by David Barton but is now run by hedge fund manager Patrick Walsh. An exclusive athleisure collection will be unveiled at a presentation and party at TMPL’s Astor Place location.

The next day, Gen Art will no doubt surprise some passers-by with an activation showcasing fashion aboard a parked fuselage from the fleet of private jet service Flewber. Flewber One will be located near Dream Downtown in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District and the La Victoria Social Club. Open to the public, the showcase features fitness benefits from TMPL, a look at the new athleisure offering and other attractions.

Created by Gen Art, TMPL’s athleisure line includes 28 men’s and women’s pieces ranging in price from $48 to $258 including vintage denim jackets, cut and sewn leggings and French terry separates. The line is made in Los Angeles.

In addition, there is a collaboration with Gen Art alum Nima Taherzadeh, the founder and creative director of Heroine Sport. Gen Art will launch bespoke pieces from a collaboration between TMPL and Heroine online and in stores this fall.

“The democratization of art makes it user-friendly. Fashion week shouldn’t be elusive; Consumers are the ones buying the clothes,” said Keri Ingvarsson, CEO of Gen Art.

At La Victoria Social Club, Gen Art Artistic Director Georgeana Ireland will unveil a Pop Art inspired exhibition which will run Thursday through Sunday. Visitors will find works by artists Dennis Ouch and Pitch Black, as well as wearable art by Vietnamese fashion brand SixDo, which operates 60 stores in Asia. The multi-day installation is part of a year-long partnership between Gen Art and La Victoria, the New York location of the Miami-based social club, which will host other burgeoning art and fashion collaborations.

SixDo, a three-year-old label led by CEO Huy Can Pham and founder Do Manh Cuong, has a private event and fashion show planned for Sunday at Spring Studios. Gen Art is co-producing the event for 350 attendees. The company plans to expand in the US through retail, pop-up shops and direct-to-consumer sales. As a vertical company that owns its factories, the label strives to keep margins low and prices affordable. For example, retail prices for dresses start at $198.

Ingvarsson said: “Gen Art doesn’t just make shows to make shows. Essentially, we bring the customer closer to new product lines and direct-to-consumer concepts while supporting growing international creatives designing for companies like Heroine Sport and SixDo.”

To keep the West Coast anniversary celebration going, Gen Art opened a Gen Art Studio location on Balboa Island, the tourist-friendly enclave in Newport Beach, California, just in time for Labor Day weekend. That’s in addition to the one bowing Friday at La Victoria in downtown New York City.

“We don’t take the gigantic commissions that other galleries take. We don’t do solo shows either. We run the studios ‘salon style’ with at least three artists at a time, allowing each artist to support and complement the other. We’ve tested this style at Art Basel, Coachella and previous New York Fashion Weeks for the past three years. “We’ve found that art sells better when we bring a few artists together to tell a story and promote their work together, while running a marketing campaign for each artist,” said Ingvarsson.

This strategy allows Gen Art to cover overhead and “earn profits faster for our company and our artists, even though our commissions are significantly lower,” Ingvarsson said.