Meet Lisa Perry, the Art-Fashion Maven Whose Husband Bought Barneys

Lisa Perry. Photo: Getty Images

Designer Lisa Perry is a style fixture based in New York City who keeps taking the mod movement to new heights. Using Andy Warhol’s famous paper dresses as a springboard, Perry forges her own partnerships with modern artists and their estates, creating pieces that have become coveted collectibles in their own right.

With Art Basel Miami Beach in full swing, we spoke with Perry about the most elusive vintage couture, how to make money at a museum gift shop, and whether or not she gets to run wild at one of the world’s most famous department stores.

Yahoo Style: So you grew up in Chicago, and your family was very into art.

Lisa Perry: My father’s hobby was painting. He was very serious about it, and that affected my love of art—and my whole family. You know how families sit and do puzzles together? Normal puzzles have pictures of trains or mountains, right? Well my family’s puzzle was a Jackson Pollock painting, which was obviously torture. It’s impossible to put it together, because it’s abstract art! How do you know which drop of paint comes next? That puzzle sat on our table forever. 

Yahoo Style: Did your parents bring you to gallery openings in Chicago? 

LP: Actually, when I was very young, my mom opened an art gallery! And after school, I would hang out there, and then my parents became friends with the head of the art department at the University of Illinois, Fred Marcus. So all the teachers in the art department were the artists in my mom’s gallery. She had potters, glass blowers, painters, all different mediums. It was a really interesting education for me. It showed me there’s no “one way” to do art.

Yahoo Style: Is that when you knew you’d merge fashion with art?

LP: Well, my first collaboration started in Tucson, Arizona, of all places. There was a photography show, with hundreds of photographs of Andy Warhol, all by different artists. When I saw them, I thought, these would translate so beautifully to dresses. But I had to get permission from the photographers. One photographer, Matt Finkelstein, was living. The other, Karl Fisher, had passed, so we got permission from his wife.  That was in 2010, and I was like, “Oh wow, that was so easy! That was so affordable! Let’s do it again!” But I realized quickly, it wouldn’t always be that easy!

YS: You did a partnership with the Roy Lichtenstein estate, which is huge.

LP: I was lucky. I know Dorothy Lichtenstein from the art world, because my husband and I are collectors. She was very generous, and said we could go through the Lichtenstein archives and pick from most of the images.

YS: What’s it like designing dresses with an artist who’s still alive, like Jeff Koons?

LP: That’s when it gets really fun. Jeff Koons is so wonderful. He’s so full of life and energy, and he said, “Just go to Jeff Koons Dot Com and pick what you want!” We sketched the dresses out with him, and then we went back and forth on final designs. So the finished pieces have a lot of his input.  Obviously, with Lichtenstein, you can’t say, “Roy, what do you think?”

YS: What’s next?

LP: We’re very, very close to finalizing our next collaboration. It’s with a living artist, an artist from today. So not ‘60s, not pop art; it’s a young, fabulous artist from today. We’re doing something a little different with him then we’ve done before. And that’s all I’ll say.

YS: Is it Kanye West?

LP: No.

Richard and Lisa Perry. Photo: Getty Images

YS: Can you collect fashion the way you collect art? Will it ever be as lucrative?  Will you ever be able to buy a piece of clothing that you know will appreciate in value?

LP: That’s an interesting question… I collect vintage couture from the ‘60s, and about fifteen years ago, the pieces I have now weren’t that expensive. Like I have a paper dress collection. The famous paper dress with the Campbell’s Soup print on it was expensive for me at the time, it was like $600, maybe a thousand.  But I just saw one at auction, that’s going for $6000—$9000! It’s super interesting how things become more rare, and more iconic. At the time, I bought it because I thought it was cool! I didn’t know it was an investment.

YS: Are there fashion pieces on sale now that you think are good investments?

LP: Fashion with an art world tie seems to do very well. I do believe my artist collaboration pieces are real investment pieces. We only make 5—30 of each dress, and then it’s gone. The Jeff Koons dresses were $2k, and now they’re going for $5,000—$10,000. That’s a pretty way to get your hands on some pop art!

YS: Do you think the Jeff Koons x H&M collection will also go up in value?

LP: Oh sure. That bag with the balloon dog is a great investment. How much were they going for, $50? That was good. But you know, Jeff Koons made limited-edition little balloon dog figurines for the MoMA gift shop a few years ago, and they were $200. And now, they’re $4000. So you’ve got to keep your eyes out for that!

YS: Is there a piece you’ve always wanted, but haven’t been able to get?

LP: A Piet Mondrian dress by Yves Saint Laurent. I missed out on those. Today, they’re $20,000. Buying that would be like buying a piece of art.

YS: Your husband, Richard Perry, now owns Barneys New York. Does that mean you get to just run through the store, like on Supermarket Sweep, and grab whatever you want?

LP: That’s very funny!

YS: So, no?

LP: I’d rather not get too into that! But I will say, if I’m not shopping at Lisa Perry, I am shopping at Barneys. And I’ll also say that their creative team is beyond fabulous, and the holiday windows this year are truly art. But they’d be a little hard to collect…