Artist Cassius Hirst Reshapes Prada's America's Cup Sneaker
Cassius Hirst, the son of famed artist Damien Hirst, is bringing his artistic talents to fashion with the Cass x Prada collection.
Every brand has its signature sneaker. For Prada, it's the America's Cup, a classic white shoe that has survived the dad shoe craze of the late 2010s. However, as the brand continuously seeks to reinvent and innovate, Prada partnered with artist Cassius Hirst to redesign and reshape the sneaker into a more artistic adaptation.
For Hirst, son of artist Damien Hirst, breaking into shoe design began as something fun born from seeing others spray painting sneakers on social media. However, once he began, he found endless possibilities for where he could go. After a day in his London studio working with vinyl stencils, Cassius sent photos of his latest shoe creations to his father who forwarded them on to Miuccia Prada—and thus began their collaboration.
"The Cass x Prada collection finds parallels between the bold work of this fresh talent and the heritage of Prada – the sense of the hand, an excellence in manufacture, a constant search for innovation, a restless urge to re-examine and reinvent our history. Here, the iconic silhouette of the Prada America’s Cup sneaker becomes a canvas for creation, offered in a special capsule. Something unique, something new," said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Marketing Director and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility.
With 22 colorways across four styles (titled ATT4CK, D3CAY, SUST4IN, REL3ASE), the Cass x Prada collection was inspired by Hirst's recent passion for music. To learn more about the collection and what went into Hirst's experimental design techniques, L'OFFICIEL speaks to the artist at Prada's flagship store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood.
L'OFFICIEL: Can you tell me a bit about your collection with Prada?
CASSIUS HIRST: Well, it's 22 colorways of the America's Cup. I kinda painted them all as prototypes and then they were industrialized, I guess you could say, where they created multiples of each ones, which was always the part that I couldn't do. There are four categories. The categories are quite varied...I kinda like the idea of them speaking for themselves really. It's all about the colors and the Prada shoes. Variations in designs—some chaotic ones and some more discreet ones.
L'O: How did you get into art via painting shoes?
CH: I think it came from seeing other people do it. I saw someone else do it with spray paint and I thought, I couldn't probably have a go at that. And then, through having a go, I thought, Maybe I could have another go. Before you know it, I've done 10 pairs or so and I had loads of ideas. And even in the process long after that, I'd start finding new stuff. It's kinda just for fun. It's one of those things where you see someone try something and then you want to try it. And then, you try it, and soon you realize, Oh, I could do loads of stuff with this. So it was mostly just experimenting, and then learning and doing more. It was quite weird, but it didn't really relate with art for that long, in my mind. It was really just a "mess around" thing. I didn't really invest that much initially, but then, before I knew it, I just realized that I could do 100 of these, 200, loads of these. So I just kept doing it, and then, here we are.
L'O: Well, art is supposed to be fun.
CH: Exactly. Exactly. 100 percent agree.
L'O: I know that the four styles are inspired by your music. How did those different themes come about?
CH: Well it was while I was coming up with the names for them that I realized that it had been in front of me the whole time because I've only been learning about music probably for the duration of this project, maybe even less. But I would work on these during the day and then go make music at night and it was always on the side I think. The names, it was always there in front of me, without me realizing, while I was brainstorming and trying to come up with the right names for them. Then I was like, Oh, Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release. They're four categories of something that already feels tightly knit together, like those four words are. They're a group, you can't really separate them. So it worked perfectly for me. I think it would be easier to understand the link for something who understands music, hopefully better than I even do, because I think that it's something that probably relates to even like trumpet players, or anyone. I hope it would relate, but for me, I only just about understand it, but people who don't understand music, they probably won't get it, but at the same time, maybe just the words will say enough. They're weird words. And also it's interpretation. Hopefully, you develop your own meaning in your head.
L'O: What kind of music do you do?
CH: Mostly it's just sequencing synthesizers and drum machines to make, I don't know, a mix of nice stuff. Trying to get synthesizers to sound like flutes and so on.
L'O: That's kinda fun.
CH: Yeah, I mean it's fun, but also total chaos and carnage kind of stuff. I guess similar to this really because I think that's what I wanted to go for is have very girl shoes that are nice and just enjoyable and good for the heart, but then have these that are also more aggressive I think.
L'O: A confined chaos.
CH: Exactly. I think that's what I named these originally was Chaos. Before I had the names, [the D3CAY shoes] were Chaos and [the REL3ASE styles] were Pop, because they kinda just pop, you know? But yeah, I think it all ties together nowadays, talking about music and drifting into the shoes. And vice versa.
L'O: As far as art goes, who are some of your inspirations or your favorite artists of the moment?
CH: That's tricky. I think traditional artist-wise, I think that most of the artists that I enjoy, I found later in my education. I think Barnett Newman is good. He does those huge paintings with a single stripe of color. I love those. When I was in my last years of school, I thought they were amazing.
L'O: That's very Prada.
CH: Yeah, exactly. Totally Prada. The red line. I think they're amazing. I think they were hated too. I think someone once cut one up, so I think I always quite liked that.
L'O: You can't be a real artist if you're not hated by someone.
CH: Exactly. But to be honest, I just like them for how they look. I'd love to have one up on a huge wall. But then also, do you know Michael Craig-Martin? He does—well, he does loads of different stuff, but I think the ones I always loved were when he would get loads of different objects and outline them with tape on a canvas. He would make the objects out of tape and then have them all overlap. It's always hard to describe. Yeah, Michael Craig-Martin. They're good. They're very clean.
L'O: So, shoe design: is that what you want to do? Can we expect more?
CH: Yeah, you can probably expect more, but I think not necessarily, because I think all the stuff that I've done here applies to anything. It's only the shoes that have been conveniently been the avenue that I've been able to access in the right way, but I think everything I've done here is more a way of approaching objects. I think I could do this for a jacket, probably, but because it's a bit harder to get a massive quantity of jackets—I don't know it's all a bit tricky. I just don't know it as well, but I think I'd love to go further with shoe design. As much as I've done 22 colorways here, I think I could do hundreds really. And in the process of this, I messed with the shape of Prada shoes as well.
L'O: I did want to know how you were able to create that texture on the ATT4CK styles.
CH: So the texture, it's funny because the texture is using the same technique that I used [on the D3CAY styles] to create this white. It's spray paint, but it's spray paint on a sheet of paper and then sticking the paper to the shoe. The thing I love about it is that you can do it with any shoe, but the design is different for each shoe because it accentuates the highlights of the shoe, and that's the same but with an acrylic gel sort of thing. It's the same thing. Rather than having to sculpt an intricate design, you just work with the shape of the shoe. It's a quick design really.
L'O: It looks like spackle or something.
CH: When I was industrializing it, when I was talking to the factory, they had no idea. They were so baffled. And it's the same idea as [the D3CAY sneakers.] They were trying to paint that with a brush. I had to send them a video. They were in Italy, but I had to send them a video from my studio in London where I just did it in a minute or so. They were like, "Oh my God! Obviously!" Because they also tried to sculpt it.
L'O: You are literally changing the shape of shoe design.
CH: Well I wanted to just expand out of the shoe really, but without sculpting something. I hate the idea of having to sculpt something and this long process. I much prefer it to be quicker. But it's the same thing that would be applicable to probably a jacket, probably a hat, and probably any other shoe.
