Tag: jil sander

Women’s Fashions in My Fall/Winter 2015 Collaboration with Jil Sander

September 30th, 2015 | No Comments

With the debut of the Jil Sander fall/winter 2015 collection for men, my paintings’ motifs have made their transformation from stretched canvas to wearable art. I could not be more excited!

The Jil Sander design team, led by creative director Rodolfo Paglialunga, has brilliantly reimagined my work for pieces in their sportswear and casual range.

I’m therefore exceedingly proud to report that the central motif of my Ocxiom series has been selected by the Jil Sander design team for the men’s sportswear and casual line, and also its fall/winter 2015 collection for women.

jil sander womens fashions fall/winter 2015The central motif of my Ocxiom series of paintings (Ocxiom 2 at bottom right) has been reimagined by Jil Sander in women’s fashions for fall/winter 2015.


Ocxiom makes its energetic mark this fall in both a navy-and-crimson pullover for women and an A-line skirt. The pullover is a counterpart to a monochromatic men’s sweater. The skirt, meanwhile, alludes to the “ground,” or negative space, of its corollary on canvas.

Both garments are now available at MyTheresa.com, part of the Neiman Marcus Group. The luxury retailer describes the pullover as having “a graphic look that’s brimming with modern flair.” The wool-blend skirt, MyTheresa observes, “features a graphic, geometric pattern that’s impossible to resist.”

The colors, textures, combinations, cuts, and contours of fashion have long played a huge part in my aesthetic imaginings. It’s therefore thrilling to have this opportunity to collaborate with Jil Sander and to contribute to creating a wave of energizing, modern, and ready-to-wear looks for fall.

Shop Jil Sander’s complete collection of modern looks for fall at store.jilsander.com.


‘The New Minimalism’: The Latest in My Collaboration with Jil Sander

September 19th, 2015 | No Comments

Through the debut of the Jil Sander fall/winter 2015 collection for men, my paintings have made a stylish transition from stretched canvas to ready-to-wear art. Every day, it seems, new examples of my collaboration with the Milan fashion house are surfacing online.

The experience of watching the collection unfold has been, to put it mildly, utterly thrilling.

Some of the newest examples of our art-meets-fashion partnership are now available online at Farfetch.com. The boutique O’, of Parma, Italy, is offering a series of Jil Sander T-shirts and sweatshirts that reimagine my 2011 painting For Never, an Ever, shown below.

New minimalism: Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
New minimalism: Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
Several new pieces in Jil Sander’s Fall/Winter 2015 menswear collection work with the cetral motif of my minimalist painting For Never, an Ever, top right. Images courtesy of farfetch.com.


I absolutely love all of these pieces. Without question, my creative partners at Jil Sander have stayed true to the spirit of my work.

In particular, what catches my attention is the green T-shirt with fluorescent pink stripes. I love color. The bolder, the better. Since my earliest minimal works, going back to my 2003 painting Tyotk Mölxx, I have found ways to incorporate fluorescent paint into my most reductive compositions.

Despite popular opinion, minimal does not need to mean monochromatic.

Jil Sander Creative Director Rodolfo Paglialunga shares this perspective. In a recent interview with MatchesFashion.com, he opines that minimalism “is not only about exclusively using black and white; it can be bright and luxuriant, it can be sexier than we think and, of course, it depends on the person who wears it.”

Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
I love this shirt. It epitomizes “The New Minimalism.” There’s clarity, with room for personality. Find it at store.jilsander.com.


Since his appointment as Jil Sander’s creative lead in April 2014, Paglialunga has sought to honor his fashion house’s rich heritage of minimal cool. At the same time, he’s ushering it forward, toward future possibilities. The Jil Sander of now is still minimal, but in tune with the realities of our time.

“I want to evolve the brand with some kind of revolution,” Paglialunga asserts. “‘New minimalism’ is the key phrase for a perfect combination between a glorious past and an innovative and smarter future.”

Perhaps the revolution is already underway. It’s the perfect moment to recast minimalism in new light. Let’s make that a big, bright, bold fluorescent light — one that illuminates a clear path forward toward modernity, but affords room for color and personality.

Just as notions of minimalist fashion have been tied for too long to the 1990s, discussion of minimalist art has been for too long associated with what was made in the 1960s. The past is important, but let’s stay in the moment, with an eye on what’s ahead.

Long live the revolution — the “New Minimalism” revolution!


Wearable Art: My Collaboration with Jil Sander Debuts

August 11th, 2015 | 8 Comments

Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
Milan fashion house Jil Sander has unveiled its Fall/Winter 2015 menswear collection, which features motifs from my minimalist paintings, such as Ocxiom 2, shown at right.


Eye-catching contrasts, monochromatic motion, angles and stripes: My minimal paintings’ motifs have made the transition from wall art to wearable art. Global fashion house Jil Sander has just unveiled its Fall/Winter 2015 collection for men, a major event that marks my artwork’s debut in designer fashion.

In January, after my trip to Milan Men’s Fashion Week, I announced that graphic inspirations from my minimal paintings would have a bold presence in Jil Sander’s looks for fall. This week the initial results of our creative partnership are arriving in the world’s finest stores, including store.jilsander.com.

My Ocxiom series of paintings takes to the streets in a crewneck wool-and-silk pullover. While the sweater is a vertical composition and my painting is square, the sweater employs a greater number of slanted stripes, matching the painting’s all-over composition. The design continues along the sweater’s sleeves, achieving an eye-catching contrast.

Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
Featuring the motif of my Ocxiom series, this Jil Sander pullover is an 80% wool and 20% silk blend. Details at store.jilsander.com.


I’m inspired to see how my work has been reimagined by the Jil Sander design team, led by creative director Rodolfo Paglialunga. Throughout the transition from painted canvas to artistic attire, my creative partners have stayed true to the spirit of my work.

In another design, my Motus series of hard-edge paintingsmotus is Latin for “motion” — brings energy and fluidity to a merino wool pullover, which features intarsia interplay in navy, gold, and black.

Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
Jil Sander Menswear Collaboration with Grant Wiggins for Fall/Winter 2015
Featuring the motif of my Motus series of paintings, top right, this Jil Sander sweater is 100% virgin wool. Details at store.jilsander.com


I have long believed that my paintings could have a “parallel life” in fashion. It is an honor that Jil Sander — such an esteemed and innovative fashion house — is making that imagined life a reality. The next few weeks should prove tremendously exciting!

Grant Wiggins


A Return to Minimal Painting

February 12th, 2015 | No Comments

Over the past two months I have shifted my focus back to minimal painting, with new focus, commitment, and energy.

I embarked upon a new series, titled Reciprocal, in December. Thus far, I have produced six paintings. Below are the three larger works.

minimal painting
minimal painting
minimal painting
Minimal paintings Reciprocal 1, 2, and 3. December 2014 – January 2015. Each measures 40 inches square (102 cm square) and is acrylic on canvas.


Why return to minimal paintings? Essentially, I felt like I had unfinished business to address.

I had made sketches for minimal paintings over the past couple of years, but I was merely filing them away. As those sketches formed a growing pile, making geometric, pattern-oriented paintings — what I call maximalism — excited me more.

Ultimately, I hit a wall with maximalism last September. I was beginning to see pattern-on-pattern artwork and design everywhere. I felt as if I had nothing to add to the conversation. Lacking direction for nearly three months, I painted nothing.

In early December, I turned a corner. Emboldened by interest in my minimal work from a major fashion design house, I carefully revisited that pile of unpainted minimal sketches. I began to see the sketches in a new way, and realized that they deserved to have a life in physical reality, not simply in pixels.

In 2007 and 2008, I had a remarkably prolific outpouring of minimal works, of nearly three dozen paintings. Most were smaller — each about 10 inches square, painted on panel. Looking back on that era, I realized how much flexibility those smaller works afforded me.

As a part of a new way of working, I am placing greater emphasis on smaller works, viewing them now as studies. For example, below is a trio of studies for Reciprocal 3, made on wood panels.

minimal painting
minimal painting
minimal painting
minimal painting
Three studies for minimal painting Reciprocal 3. December 2014 – January 2015. Each measures 10 inches square by 1.5 inches deep (25 x 25 x 4 cm) and are acrylic on panel-mounted canvas.


Considering the dimensions of these cradled panels — 10 inches square by 1.5 inches deep (25 x 25 x 4 cm) — I’m forced to pay attention to how the compositions will travel onto the sides of the panels. These pieces seem to be more sculptural in nature, as a result. A 40-inch-square (102 cm) canvas would need 6-inch-deep (15 cm)sides to achieve the same effect.

What I have learned from these six paintings, produced throughout December and January, is that minimal work is not just about design and composition. It’s also about mindset. I have found that my thinking has calmed somewhat. I feel more appreciation for subtlety, and I find myself “listening” to the negative space in each composition.

Perhaps this sense of calm and focus is why I have returned to minimal painting. I feel a new freedom to explore space. My mind is remaining quiet and receptive, carefully listening for combinations of line and color that excite me.

I’m not forcing paintings to happen, and it feels wonderful.

Grant Wiggins


Collaboration with Jil Sander on fall / winter 2015 men’s collection

January 30th, 2015 | No Comments

I recently had the profound pleasure of traveling to Milan as a guest of luxury fashion house Jil Sander, to view its Fall / Winter 2015 men’s collection — from a front-row seat.

Graphic motifs from several of my minimal paintings will have a presence in the sportswear and casual range of Jil Sander’s fall collection for men, which will be available in some of the world’s finest stores starting in September.

What’s more, invitations to the runway show featured a reimagined version of my minimal, 70s-inspired painting Blactan.

Blactan by Grant Wiggins with invitations to the runway presentation of Jil Sander's fall 2015 men's collection
Above: The study for my 2007 painting Blactan among invitations to the runway show for Jil Sander’s Fall / Winter 2015 men’s runway show, held January 17, 2015, as a part of Milan Men’s Fashion Week.


I was contacted by Jil Sander in December, out of the blue, to my great surprise. Quite simply, the brand’s design team had found my work online, and wished to license selections from my catalogue.

Naturally, I didn’t say no.

All the same, I have said “thank you” to the Internet a few times.

Nearly 6,000 miles (9400 km) separate my studio in Tempe, Arizona and Milan. Traveling between the two points takes nearly one full day.

But it’s particularly fascinating to me that, despite this distance, my work might resonate with, and possibly inspire, a highly accomplished designer and his team — one that’s virtually on the other side of the world from where I paint.

The world is even smaller than I once imagined.

I have long believed that my paintings could have a parallel life in fashion. Friends and family have asked me this repeatedly, “Why don’t you make clothes? Your paintings would look fantastic on shirts!” However, I never imagined that a global luxury brand like Jil Sander would get the process started before me.

Led by creative director Rodolfo Paglialunga, Jil Sander’s fall/winter 2015 runway collection for men was impeccably presented. I was immensely impressed by the overcoats, which balanced angularity and structure with luxuriousness and comfort. I can also appreciate how the collection’s palette was accented by punches of bold hues, such as vivid red-orange, which blazed down the runway more than once.

It was a thrill to have the opportunity to meet Jil Sander staff in person. The fashion house has been perfectly generous with me.

Once images of garments featuring my work become available, I will certainly share them with you in this space. There’s more to come this fall.

No excuses — there’s plenty of time to set aside some of your wardrobe budget for a Jil Sander / Grant Wiggins sweater!

Until next time, ciao ciaoooo!

— Grant Wiggins