Who On Earth Is Mr Brad Bieber?

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Who On Earth Is Mr Brad Bieber?

Words by Mr Adam Welch

30 November 2016

Ever wondered what a hybrid of Messrs Brad Pitt and Justin Bieber would look like? Check out Mr Neil Barrett’s new collection with Interview magazine on site now to find out.

The words “influential” and “iconic” tend to get thrown around rather a lot these days. But we think they can be fairly safely applied to Interview, the glossy style and entertainment magazine launched in 1969 by none other than the great pop artist (and, it seems sometimes, progenitor of all things cool in the 20th century), Mr Andy Warhol. Over the past five decades, Interview has featured a truly glittering array of the world’s most famous (or soon-to-be-famous) people on its cover, from the likes of Mses Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross and Farrah Fawcett in its early years to today’s pop cultural royals, from fashion designer and director Mr Tom Ford to Messrs Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and more. Among Interview’s many innovations, one of the most charming recent developments is the way that its cover features not only involve famous stars, but also famous interviewers, resulting in some surprising and sometimes brilliantly weird pairings. Like Ms Paris Hilton interviewing the rapper Lil’ Wayne. Or godmother of punk Ms Patti Smith talking to queen of vamps Ms Kristen Stewart.

It’s very much in this spirit of mixing things up that designer Mr Neil Barrett has created a new capsule collection in collaboration with Interview, becoming the first person from the world of fashion to ever be granted access to the publication’s voluminous archive. Taking a series of instantly recognisable covers from past issues of the magazine, the designer has invented a series of “hybrid” prints in which famous faces are spliced together to create new ones, from “Eddie Taylor” (a collage of Mr Eddie Redmayne and Ms Elizabeth Taylor) to “Brad Bieber” (no, we probably don’t need to spell out that one). It’s a technique he’s explored at length in his runway collections, via glitchy graphics of statues, paintings and pop culture ephemera, which he deploys here with expert precision for a series of energetic, anarchic images that speak strongly of his early, counter-cultural inspirations. And if that all sounds like something you’d be keen to get your hands on, you’ll be pleased to know that the collection, comprising a range of T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with these designs, is available now on MR PORTER.