New York (EFE).- The American actress and activist Angelina Jolie will establish her sustainable fashion business, Atelier Jolie, which she plans to open in the fall of this year, in the former studio of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York.
The art portal ArtNews reported that the actress rented the large three-story space, located at 57 Great Jones Street, in southern Manhattan, with a commercial use contract for the next eight years.
The Atelier Jolie website offers this Friday a video in which you can see the facade of the building full of graffiti, and the actress, with her back turned and dressed in black, contemplating it while a new graffiti is added with the business logo.
“It is a privilege to be in this space. We will do our best to respect and honor his artistic legacy through community and creativity. We hope to see you there”, indicates a message with the new address on the web.
Fashion, sustainability and commitment
According to the description of the business, Atelier Jolie seeks to be a point of collaboration between creatives and designers, printmakers and artisans “from all over the world”, and will use “only leftover fabrics, quality vintage material and discarded pieces”.
Regarding its workers, it indicates that it wants to create a “diverse team, including training for refugees and other talented and underappreciated groups, with positions of dignity based on abilities.”
The actress, who defines herself as an “artist rather than a businesswoman”, has been involved in refugee activism for some two decades at the UN, but half a year ago she left her post as a humanitarian envoy.
A space with history in New York
The space where the store will be located made headlines last year, when it went on the market for around $60,000 a month with conditions that appear to have been lowered, since a minimum 10-year contract was initially required.
The studio, which is actually a 600-square-meter building spread over three floors, was owned by Andy Warhol, who rented the space to Basquiat, who lived and died there of a heroin overdose in 1988, aged 27.