WIGBAR DOES WARHOL
www.wigbar.com
WIGBAR DOES WARHOL
WIGBAR recieived an exciting call last week to once again recreate some iconic looks for the Museum of FIT's fall exhibit; "A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, the first museum exhibition to explore in depth the significant contributions to fashion made by LGBTQ (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer) individuals over the past 300 years.
Corresponding with NYC’s Fashion Week, the exhibit opens September 13, 2013. A Queer History of Fashion will feature approximately 100 ensembles, from 18th-century menswear styles associated with an emerging gay subculture to 21st-century high fashion.
This time around, WIGBAR has recreated several looks to adorn the unique and priceless collection curated for this exhibit. Though we've been put to the test in the past recreating, styling and installing an army of Daphne Guinness' signature doos, (be it her black and white updo's and silver fingerwaves to compliment her exquisite private collection), or an entire exhibit crowned with goth inspired mohawks and extreme styles. This seasons exhibit is especially fun and exciting for us. We've been commissioned to recreate the iconic mop top wig that Andy Warhol was so identified with.
In our extensive and enjoyable research we came to realize that his choppy two tone look was not just a quick fix thrown on to accessorize his intentional disheveled look, but an evolution of style, deliberately made to look more like a wig instead of passing as his natural hair.
His original wigs were handmade with hair imported from Italy and sewn by a specialist named Paul Bochicchio who owned and operated a boutique wig shop on West 42nd street called "Hairpieces by Paul". Paul was known to personally deliver the wigs to "The Factory" where Andy would then spend hours dying the lower portion of the back of each wig, giving it the appearance of real hair sticking out of the back.
The iconic look was actually an evolution which started with a natural brown wig he wore to cover his receding hairline in the late 1950's, but, no surprise...his sense of style evolved and so did his looks, eventually switching to a yellow-blonde, then a platinum, then the two tone grey/silver look that he's most associated with. Warhol had a theory that if he always wore a grey wig that made him look older, the public would never know how old he really was.
Andy was also known to be quite the "collector". He was known to collect airplane menus, unpaid invoices, pizza dough, pornographic pulp novels, newspapers, stamps, supermarket flyers, cookie jars...and, yep you guessed it, his own wigs. He owned roughly 100 wigs and 40 of them are now archived in the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, PA.
He once framed an old wig and gave it to Jean-Michel Basquiat as an artwork, which proved itself as a collectible. Not surprisingly, one of his wigs claimed a hair raising price of $10,800 in 2006 at a Christie’s auction.
Being born out of the downtown NYC scene, WIGBAR is thrilled to be part of the exhibit and excited to give our wigs their 15 minutes of fame. Our version of this legendary doo will be seen adorning the mannequins dressed in Warhol’s actual suits. Stop in and Check it out!