Andy Warhol In Brooks — And Chrome

Around the corner from me at the Newport Art Museum, there’s a new Andy Warhol exhibit that opened last month. It’s a good enough excuse to revisit this post from nearly a decade ago when a chrome statue of the artist was revealed in New York. The Times provided the following quote about Warhol’s conventional American attire, which sculptor Rob Pruitt based on what Warhol wore in ’77:

[The artist] Mr. Pruitt’s version of Warhol, which he devised on a computer, is young and beautiful with an uncharacteristically delicate nose and an unusually kempt fright wig. He resembles a taller version of Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter, as well as the sleek preppy young men found in Warhol’s early drawings: the Andy that Andy, famously sensitive about his looks, would have liked to be. He wears the basic Warhol uniform of blazer, button-down shirt and rep tie with jeans and stylish oxfords. A Polaroid camera — impossibly bulky by today’s standards — hangs from his neck, and in his right hand he holds a Bloomingdale’s shopping bag, in which he usually carried copies of Interview, the celebrity magazine he founded in 1969.

Warhol’s uniform wasn’t something he adapted later, during his drawn out “15 minutes of fame,” but rather something he’d been wearing for quite some time, proving the timelessness of traditional American menswear. — CC

12 Comments on "Andy Warhol In Brooks — And Chrome"

  1. NYT’s description of chrome Andy’s clothes omits, understandably, a key detail: Warhol liked to wear plaid shirts with his blazer, jeans and rep ties

  2. Yes, there’s a photo of him in full kit on page 56 of “Jocks and Nerds,” for those who have the book. I was going to scan it but decided to avoid the copyright peccadillo.

  3. Michael J Opie | April 9, 2011 at 5:39 am |

    What’s this moron Warhola got to do with style?

  4. LOuise Church | April 11, 2011 at 5:14 am |

    Mr Chensvold, I totally agree with Mr Opie – what’s the magic in an ugly, talentless pervert? A statue of Richard Nixon would make more pure ‘Ivy’ sense. The tentacles of Warhol’s con-man’s ‘art’ extend beyond the grave.

  5. A statue was unveiled of a famous/infamous American wearing a Brooks Brothers blazer. That has news value.

  6. Ms. Church, while Brooks was not mentioned specifically in the excerpted article, it was mentioned by other news sources:

    http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=andy+warhol+brooks+brothers

    Cordially,

    C.

  7. Louise Church | April 11, 2011 at 3:40 pm |

    It’s ‘Miss’ Church, FYI. ‘Ms’ hasn’t quite got the Ivy touch to it, I feel. The reports seem undecided as to whether it was a blazer or a tweed jacket – some difference, I think. But the question arises whether Andy would have used Brooks at all. There is a lot of bogus history around and it is irresponsible for journalists heedlessly to jump to conclusions without proof. After all, Mr Moron might have gone to Oxxford, for all we know.

  8. Old School Tie | October 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm |

    9 years after the fact, I now know that this is called being “triggered”….

  9. Opie, I beg to differ with you. However, you sir are the “Moron” as you so ignorantly stated. While not a “Trad” in in the sense that is commonly used here, Andy Warhol regularly incorporated elements of both Brooks Brothers and traditional clothing into his style throughout his life. Additionally, if you had bothered to educate yourself and utilized the computer for something other than throwing out your naive comments, you may have discovered Warhol had/has an intrinsically linked history to style. Warhol’s influence on style, albeit maybe not your idea of it, is unmistakably, undeniably seen still throughout the worlds of Art, Fashion, Film, Publication and beyond. He is also one of the most recognized names in Art throughout the world along beside Picasso. In closing Opie, do take the time to utilize the computer to broaden yourself beyond the confines of what for many here is the only “real” style, that being Trad, Ivy, etc. Yet, not the only style.

  10. Vern Trotter | October 27, 2020 at 1:32 pm |

    For years the story has been around that Warhol took his first check for selling some artwork and bought 100 white OCBDs from Brooks. Whether this actually is true or not I have never heard of any verification. But I like to think of it as true.

  11. A. Morningstar | November 5, 2020 at 12:00 pm |

    Wow. 9 years late, but Michael J Opie and *MISS* Church are absolutely hateful. Not sure you can use quotes around the word ‘art’ in your petulantly narrow criticism if the art in question is something the public responds to and desires. Warhol has been referenced, reproduced, and mimicked for 5 decades and he forecasted the “insta-fame” culture we live in today. Perhaps you don’t like who he was as a person or his persona, but you can’t deny the incredible impact he had on art and culture.

  12. ROY G. BIV | May 19, 2021 at 3:51 pm |

    “What’s the magic in an ugly, talentless pervert?” Such hate on a person who died decades ago. You trolls need therapy. Who gives a frogs fat ass what Warhol wore, how he wore it, or if he somehow offended the “Ivy Leaguers” because he chose to wear his tie askew. “Oh heavens, no!” The absurdity of these posts are beyond words. However, I am happy to see he’s still pissing off the snobs, kinda like good ol’ Al Czervik did in Caddyshack.

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