Liu Bolin Teams Up with Valentino for 2013 Spring/Summer Camouflage Collection

In what seems like a perfect mash-up of inherent sensibilities, Valentino has partnered with king of street deception Liu Bolin for a Spring/Summer 2013 Camouflage collection. Realized at an in-store event in Milan in early January, the artist created one of his signature human canvas-assisted works – where the end result sees a body at rest turn into a body that isn’t even remotely visible. In speaking about the project Bolin commented, “Disappearing amongst the mannequins and the clothes in store was like going back to my artistic roots. For my performance series of photographs ‘Hiding in the City’ I had originally chosen to wear a military uniform then for various reasons I decided on a Maoist uniform. During the Valentino in store event I wore the trousers from that uniform, shoes and jacket were instead from the Valentino Camouflage collection. These pieces reminded me of a time when I had considered entering into a military career, which I then abandoned for my artistic vocation.” Realized on outerwear, accessories and small leather goods, the color palette comes in green, camel, blue, black, grey and ivory with splashes of rust, red and acid green.