TATIANISTA

I’ve been a fan of the artist Mark Ryden for years now. A limited edition, numbered lithograth of “Meat Girl” is proudly displayed on the blood-red wall that abuts my kitchen. I’ve been dying to add more of his disturbingly saccharine and adorably dark images to my collection. As a former vegetarian (who’s now happily carnivorous) and a lover of twisted fairy tales, I think his brand of art is the perfect combination of the magical and the macabre, much like many of the glorious collections of Alexander McQueen & John Galliano. Come to think of it, how utterly fabulous would it be for an underground fashionista like myself to have wearable meat a la Ryden to add to my ever-growing, glamorously eccentric wardrobe? So fab, in fact, that someone far more clever thought of it long before I did.

Only recently did I learn that Mark Ryden collaborated with a brilliant and talented artist, Nagi Noda, to launch her “Broken Label” collection last year, which was sold at Collette in Paris (and apparently had even more limited availability elsewhere). This was the first and only collaborative fashion collection the two artists produced and will likely be as highly collectible as just about anything else Ryden has produced…even more-so now that Noda, whose broad body of work included everything from popular music videos and commercials to sculpture, conceptual art and “hair hats”, died tragically young last year. She left this world wearing her favorite Chanel boots, Victor and Rolf black lace eyelashes and one of her own Mark Ryden dresses.

R.I.P., sweet Fashionista.