Prints charming: American Apparel plays with Post-modernism

Milan, Los Angeles – High street fashion brand American Apparel has collaborated with Memphis Group co-founder Nathalie du Pasquier to create a 43-piece collection and video that expresses the kitsch and humorous aesthetic of the design movement.

The Los Angeles-based retailer, known for its sexually charged advertising campaigns, approached the designer to inject the iconic Memphis prints and patterns onto the brand’s signature pieces. The stop motion film features bold 1980s-style graphics with models dancing in a playful, cartoon-like manner – the synth pop soundtrack is by Du Pasquier herself.

‘It was the first collaboration with a fashion company in many, many years actually because I am a painter,’ the designer tells The New York Times. ‘I have not done that kind of work in a long time.’

Could this be the collection to lift American Apparel out of the Memphis blues? For more on how designers and brands are experimenting with notions of consumerism, read our Neo Kitsch design direction.