The designer Ulla Johnson, a born-and-bred New Yorker, based her eponymous clothes line in 1998. The model has seen regular development ever since; it has significantly ramped up lately, because of the recognition of Johnson’s vibrant and bohemian however nonetheless well-tailored clothes.
Johnson usually seems to artists for inspiration—for a current ready-to-wear line, she labored with the property of Lee Krasner to rework the late artist’s work into textile prints and clothes. Even within the Brooklyn brownstone she shares along with her husband, Zach Miner (an artwork guide) and their three youngsters, artwork is part of Johnson’s on a regular basis life.
A glance from Ulla Johnson’s spring/summer time 2025 assortment, in collaboration with the Pollock-Krasner Basis
The Artwork Newspaper: What was the primary work you ever purchased?
Ulla Johnson: I honestly can’t bear in mind the primary piece I ever purchased, however the first I purchased for our household brownstone in Fort Greene was Diana (2017) by Kathleen Ryan—a monumental brass-and-rose-quartz hanging sculpture we needed to construct into the very construction of the home.
Kathleen Ryan’s Diana (2017), put in in Ulla Johnson’s household brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
What was the latest work you purchased?
A Gilbert Poillerat wrought-iron-backed painted mirror at public sale.
How rapidly do you resolve to purchase a murals?
Generally instantly on sight, different instances I might be very affected person—years or extra to search out the appropriate work by a particular artist. I’ve been searching for the appropriate gilded weaving by Olga de Amaral for years.
What do you remorse not shopping for once you had the possibility?
A set of Africa eating chairs that Afra and Tobia Scarpa made for Maxalto.
In the event you might have any work from any museum on the planet, what wouldn’t it be?
I might by no means need to personal one thing that’s held in belief for future generations to be taught from and revel in. My nice dream is to go away an necessary assortment of fibre works by feminine artists on view and obtainable to the general public.
What are you most trying ahead to seeing throughout the exhibitions, festivals and auctions in New York this spring?
The textile present at MoMA, Caspar David Friedrich on the Met and the Alma Allen public exhibition alongside Park Avenue.
How does artwork encourage your design work?
I derive a whole lot of inspiration from work and fibre artwork, akin to surprising color juxtapositions, textures and motifs. These usually inform the preliminary spirit of our collections. What we actually attempt to do each season is carry collectively the arms of so many artists and artisans. Over the previous few years, we’ve been lucky to companion with artists I love very a lot for our ready-to-wear collections and runway exhibits—Alma Allen, Shara Hughes, the property of Lee Krasner and Julie Hamisky—with extra thrilling collaborations on the horizon!
