I said yes to a collab with a fashion brand and my followers hated it. Not sure I was wrong though.
So a Barcelona-based clothing brand reached out, they wanted to use photos of my pieces styled with their new collection for a lookbook. I thought cool, my wonky little ceramic heads next to nice linen, why not. They offered 400€ and a bunch of clothes, I said yes.
The second I posted the announcement, the comments were... not mean exactly but disappointed. Like I was selling out. "Oh so we're doing fast fashion now?" "Mateo no." A couple people said it felt off-brand.
And ok, I get it. But also, I'm 27, my kiln is held together with wire, and 400€ is 400€. The brand is small, Spanish, not Zara. They make stuff by hand too, different material but same energy. I felt good about it until I didn't.
I don't know. I still think independent artists and independent brands can help each other without it being gross. But the reaction made me second-guess everything. Has anyone else done a collab that felt right but your audience just wasn't there with you? How do you tell the difference between selling out and just... making rent?
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Honestly, I think the people who accused you of selling out don't understand how most artists actually live. 400€ is materials for two months, or a broken kiln part, or just rent breathing room. That's not selling out, that's surviving.
But also, even putting the money aside, I don't see the problem conceptually. Your ceramic heads are already objects, already in the world, already things you make multiples of sometimes. Putting them next to clothing in a lookbook is just another context. It's not like you designed a logo for Zara. It's a small brand, it's a collaboration, it's a different frame for the same work.
I think the "off-brand" criticism is revealing though. It suggests people have a very fixed idea of what an artist should be, pure, separate from commerce, making only for art contexts. That's a fantasy. Printmakers have been entangled with commercial work forever. Toulouse-Lautrec made posters. Warhol was a commercial illustrator. The boundary is not as clean as people want it to be.
You're fine. Keep the linen, fix the kiln.
Yeah. There's this idea that art should be pure and money shouldn't touch it, which is easy to believe when someone else pays your rent. The work exists either way. A lookbook doesn't change the pieces, it just puts them in front of different people. 400€ and some linen shirts sounds like a fair trade.
right?? the "pure art" thing is such a luxury take. like sorry I can't afford to be a martyr for my craft, I have to buy more grog. the linen shirts are genuinely nice btw, I'm wearing one right now and feeling very conflicted about being comfortable lmao
this is exactly it. like, I'm not trying to be a brand, I'm trying to keep the kiln running and maybe have a beer after. the pieces are already out there living their little lives, what's one more context.
and the brand reached out because they liked the work, not because they wanted me to make something ugly for a discount. felt genuine to me. still does.