Coach x Jean-Michel Basquiat Collection: The Conversation That Needs to Happen
Graphic by Jessica Chen
While walking down the street in Manhattan this summer for the first time in months, it felt surreal. For a city that’s always buzzing, it was fascinating seeing people emerge into a new type of New York. It was a sight to behold — Manhattan was quiet. I felt like I needed to see anything and everything, maybe because I didn't know how long it would be until I could see it all again.
I usually don’t go into incredibly expensive stores because I’m not about to spend a month’s worth of rent on one item. But when I passed by Coach and recognized Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art through the stretch of glass windows, I was intrigued. The store was silent except for the occasional conversations among coworkers. One employee immediately came up to me and explained the history of Basquiat’s art, and how the collaboration with Coach is an exciting opportunity to honor his work.
While the rhetoric and designs were both tempting, it still wasn’t enough to get me to drop $550 on a purse when I barely use a wallet. That night, while scrolling through Twitter, I found multiple tweets about how the collaboration didn’t sit right with a lot of people. Some claim having his art mass-produced to be sold on products isn’t what Basquiat would’ve wanted if he were alive.
Coach X Jean-Michel Basquiat Beat Shoulder Bag 18, selling for $550. Image via Coach
Coach X Jean-Michel Basquiat Beat Shoulder Bag 18, selling for $550. Image via Coach
In recent years, Basquiat’s work has been featured in collections with Uniqlo, Doc Martens and Urban Outfitters in addition to Coach. And while this recent collaboration has taken the fashion scene by storm as seen in Vogue Australia, InStyle and GQ Magazine, many of these outlets have failed to mention the virtual controversy and what could be lying beneath the praise. Coach’s bags, Uniqlo’s clothes and Doc Martens’ shoes in collaboration with Basquiat’s art are all incredibly tempting to buy, especially in today’s capitalism-centric society. But knowing what Basquiat stood for and expressed in his work, is it right idolizing his art through capitalistic standards when he was vehemently opposed to such? Outlets and corporations are so quick to admire Basquiat for his work, but it raises the question, are they glorifying his message or what they can monetarily gain from it? And why isn’t there more controversy from these collaborations?
Dos Cabezas painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982 for Andy Warhol
Basquiat was a Haitian and Puerto Rican artist born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1960. He started off doing graffiti in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early ‘70s and became well acquainted with the street art, rap and punk music scenes. While working as the graffiti artist known as SAMO, he painted on clothes to upcycle them. Before long, Basquiat’s art was becoming recognized, and he was featured in the MoMA PS1 art gallery. His work was placed in galleries internationally, and he became the youngest artist to have work in the Whitney Biennial in New York. He was also the youngest artist to participate in Documenta, where he met Andy Warhol. He kept a close friendship with Warhol, which began from Basquiat painting a picture of the two of them together and showing the other artist. But in 1988, Basquiat overdosed on heroin and passed away at the age of 27. After his death, his art only increased in popularity and price.
The Coach x Jean-Michel Basquiat collection dropped for the fall 2020 collection, featuring celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Michael B. Jordan. The collection includes clothes, bags and accessories with the artist’s work branded on them. The company showed immense excitement for the collaboration too. Coach creative director Stuart Vevers said in a statement about the collaboration, “I am proud to celebrate [Basquiat’s] work and values and help bring them to a new generation.”
Coach X Jean-Michel Basquiat Triangle Bag 24 selling for $595. Image via Coach
Coach X Jean-Michel Basquiat Wells Backpack selling for $995. Image via Coach
This is terribly ironic, because a lot of Basquiat’s art utilized social commentary to criticize power structures and systemic racism, especially social and political issues happening in the United States at the time. He also focused on topics like wealth versus poverty and inner experience versus outer experience, and he expressed these ideas through symbols and cultural references in his work. Basquiat used his art to show his experiences in the Black community and interest in African American history through the combination of painting, drawing and poetry in his contemporary art.
He was outwardly political and attacked historically abusive power dynamics like colonialism and the police system and brutality, while recognizing class struggle and idolizing Black people who led social justice movements. Through commentaries about social justice issues in his art, Basquiat expressed time and time again his disapproval toward oppressive systems like policing and capitalism. It seems unlikely Basquiat would approve a collaboration with Coach, a powerful luxury brand. Now, big companies and corporations that represent those oppressive systems are praising Basquiat’s work, refusing to see why these collaborations don’t sit right with people who understood and enjoyed his art.
Due to Basquiat’s untimely death, he didn’t have a will. His estate, or the heir to the legal rights and interests of Basquiat and his work, was split between his mother, Matilde Basquiat, and father, Gérard Basquiat. But when Matilde passed away years later without a will as well, Gérard inherited her portion of the estate. Upon Gérard’s passing in 2013, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s two sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat, have been in charge of the estate. While the estate strives to preserve and exhibit Basquiat’s art, the legal rights it entails holds the ability to collaborate with companies for profit.
Basquiat had the ability to capture the gaze of the world at such a young age, and he’s held it there since. But think twice when you see these collaborations with large corporations and fast-fashion businesses. Capitalism is distorting Basquiat’s messages into a cash cow where consumers are eating out of the palms of its hands. Basquiat may not have had the chance to speak for himself upon his death, but his political and social stances ring glaringly clear through his work. Basquiat, a young artist who sought to show the world his creations and views, has been forced to engage with the systems he opposed when he was alive. Now, from glamorizing Basquiat through a capitalistic lens, we are doing his work and his message a grave disservice.