Fashion and art converge in the world of couture, where the finest fabrics are embellished with techniques like hand beading and embroidery. It’s a luxury that’s been reserved mostly for women, and one that designer Jonathan Meizler is determined to bring into menswear, one tie at a time.
The pieces he creates under the label Title of Work are equal parts fashion statement and art object — thin strips of fabric adorned with materials such as cock feathers, sprayed rubber, body jewelry, black diamonds, and impossibly delicate snake bones topped off with onyx and sewn on like oversized beads. It’s an approach that came from his desire to combine his experience designing custom women’s eveningwear and his artistic vision.
“I figured that the tie was the perfect canvas to do that, where I could create these little organisms, and I could use my background with the beading and couture and blend that with the world of men’s clothes,” Meizler told ARTINFO at the opening of “Anatomy of a Tie,” an exhibition of his work at New York’s HPGRP Gallery. The designer was wearing one of his simpler designs, a tie clip in the shape of a human heart – a personal reminder of an illness he overcame.
Around him were samples from past collections from his line, which he launched in 2011 with a collection inspired by couture techniques. Since then, he has experimented with darker themes, such as “Gentleman Meets Fetishist,” “Taxidermy,” and “Inked” (his most recent), which reference more taboo topics like piercing, decomposition, and tattoo culture. The creations are sold at high-end retailers, including Barneys New York and Isetan in Japan, and have decorated the necks of natty dressers from Elton John to Wiz Khalifa.
The exhibition, which runs through December 28, combines the label’s past four collections with Meizler’s own artwork – installation pieces that deconstruct and dissect the tie. In one, the tie’s components are shown like an anatomical model, each layer separated by a pane of glass. Across the room, a tie embroidered with 43.5 carats of black diamonds is suspended in space by a series of threads. Nearby, a beader sits silently, painstakingly adding miniscule Japanese Miyuki beads to a work in progress.
Meizler’s interest in art is evident even in the brand’s smallest details. The ties are packaged in round tins and labeled with their medium and dimensions. Next to the label’s name, Title of Work, is a little red dot — a symbol that a work has sold in galleries around the world.
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