From Canvas to Catwalk. World Famous Works of Art Printed onto Leggings.

The notion of wearable art is not new and quite often we find in museum and gallery shops the choice of gifts and souvenirs are limited to Tee shirts, shopping bags and scarfs albeit the prints taken from masterpieces are incorporated in their collections.

 

Now a company based in East Sussex in the UK has joined forces with The National Gallery in London in a project that sees images from some of the world’s greatest paintings feature on its range of leggings.

Model Simone Wells wearing A Still Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase’ by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

Following an approach from The National Gallery, Wild Bangarang has introduced fashion lines for leggings that feature the masterpieces ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘A Wheatfield, with Cypresses’ by Vincent van Gogh and ‘A Still Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase’ by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. 

The leggings are being sold on-line and soon at The National Gallery, which houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.

Adam Jay at Wild Bangarang HQ

Wild Bangarang was set up by entrepreneurs Adam Jay and David Pearson in 2014 and specialises in printed clothing. To date, the company’s success has been built on designs based on pop culture such as World of Warcraft and Power Rangers.

Adam, a photographer, started a ‘superhero creations’ Facebook page several years ago and it engaged with a huge online community, achieving 950,000 likes. Adam and David both felt that the quality and variety of apparel servicing the ‘geek’ market was lacking and identified a business opportunity there.

“Looking at the athleisure market and the projected growth, we couldn't find a home-grown business focusing on this sector so we decided that could be us! Wild Bangarang was started to reach that market window. Initially with a handful of designers, we set off on our venture.”

Now in year two, the business has turned over £350,000 which gave the company the encouragement to see the potential for growing the market sector.

Adam said: “We pride ourselves on dedication and a personal touch to each of our garments. This is attractive to brands like The National Gallery which has strong guidelines and wants to protect its image.

“We always work carefully on samples to make sure the colours and design are authentic and true to the brand, which makes our product the best on the market for printed leggings.

“The National Gallery designs were a challenge for us as we couldn’t edit a famous piece of art just to fit the leg shape,” said Adam.

The pair have plans to expand their range further to meet demand, travelling all over the world to fashion, comic and licensing events to showcase Wild Bangarang’s range.  So watch this space!