You just didn’t know where to look first at the Frieze festival’s Feb. 26 opening — but it wasn’t always at the artwork on the walls.
The event, now in its seventh year, sprawled across a circus-style big-top tented megalopolis at the Santa Monica Airport — a far cry from its 2019 debut on the Paramount lot but every bit as spectacular. With work from 100 galleries representing artists from around the world, hordes of aficionados poured through the space during the opening of the four-day festival. There was, as usual, a heavy celebrity quotient; this year’s included Timothy Olyphant, Emma Watson, Christoph Waltz, WME’s Ari Emanuel and wife Sarah Staudinger (of L.A. fashion brand Staud), Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, Fiona Shaw and Lisa Edelstein, plus artists Doug Aitken, Adam Alessi and Andrea.
But the real stars of Frieze aren’t always the bold-faced names — they’re the boldly dressed ones. Among the thousands who turned out for day one, a remarkable number seemed to have treated their outfits as entries in the show itself: an edgy parade of avant-garde eyewear, sculptural footwear and statement headwear competing gamely with the art on the walls. As one attendee put it: “You can see art — or you can be it. I choose to be it.”
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Steve Wilson
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The Midwest hotelier and gallerist wore a canary-yellow suit designed by Kentucky artist Bri Bowers. “It’s wearable art,” he says. “Why shouldn’t an art collector like me be a walking world of art.” The red sunglasses, he notes “are my signature.”
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Lindsay Hawkins
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The artist-slash-filmmaker donned an avant-garde skirt by London based folklore label Chopova Lowena. “I’m drawn to things that stick out, but are still comfortable,” she says.
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Aliona Kononova
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The L.A. designer wore her own work: red bubble dress, separate white silk cape, white round cuffs and a black wood handbag. “These ivory glasses,” she says, “are by London’s Adele Mildred, inspired by Peggy Guggenheim.”
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Brenna Pierose and Jessica Trent
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar Pierose, a marketing exec, matched her two-piece Alexis dress with vintage Prada loafers. Trent, an art consultant, went with a vintage mismatched look. “I threw it all together based on a picture I recently saw by the late artist Steven Arnold.”
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RF Jefferies
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The San Diego based art collector wears only black and only from Demma’s Balenciaga, saying, “I believe greatly in the power of clothes and the ritual of dressing. Life is too short not to surround yourself with beauty.”
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Kya Lou
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The filmmaker and artist dons a leather hat by Lou Badger of Mexico City.
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Stone Island
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Thomas Drotar The fashion brand, a perennial sponsor of the festival, created these Frieze tees for this year’s event.