A Russian fashion socks brand St. Friday Socks has released a limited collection of sock designs inspired by world-class masterpieces of art, in collaboration with The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, in Moscow.

The socks collection, which includes eight designs, features motifs that are based on the paintings and sculptures from the permanent collection of the museum. With this new collaboration, the company believes it can show that basic, everyday items like socks can also be a part of the visual arts and inspire us every day.

“When I was a child, the museums fascinated me. And I was also bewitched by their souvenir shops. Having grown older, I used to buy amusing and useful things in the most famous museums in the world. Now, I'm glad that in the Pushkin Museum, known to all admirers of impressionism and the 20th century art, you can buy a collection of St.Friday Socks – a souvenir that is at the same time practical, artistic and recognisable,” said Sergey Tonkov, founder of St. Friday Socks.

Bright and dynamic collection

The design of the models is based on the most recognisable and loved works of the Pushkin Museum. These include paintings like Are you jealous? by Paul Gauguin, Red Vineyards at Arles, The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey by Vincent van Gogh, Jaguar Attacking a Horse by Henri Rousseau, as well as the sculptures Discobolus by Myron, David by Michelangelo and the Egyptian sarcophagus Mahu.

“We follow the general world trends in museum merchandising. And we like that our Western colleagues have enough irony and taste to make art accessible and tangible in everyday life. This limited collection, created together with St. Friday Socks, is very bold, ironic and casual at the same time,” commented Dinara Sharlapayeva, Head of Marketing and Advertising, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Stylish souvenir

With the help of the staff of the Pushkin Museum, the brand selected the brightest and most recognisable motifs that the company believes correspond to modern fashion trends. These has to be broken down into separate elements in order to preserve the recognisable style of the artist, and at the same time to correlate the details of the image with the requirements of modern fashion and the technical capabilities of the factory production.

“A bright and dynamic collection in the casual style will be a good addition to a modern wardrobe and an excellent souvenir from one of the most visited museums in Russia,” the company reports. Each of the eight models of the joint collection is released in limited edition. The collection is for sale in the gift shop and the online store of the Pushkin Museum, and in the brand’s online store.

Past collaborations

The brand St. Friday Socks was founded in 2015 by Sergey Tonkov and since then has grown to include a number of collections addressing various needs of a modern consumer. The brand has also worked with a number of other companies, being featured in over a hundred of private label collections in the Autumn/Winter 2016-17 season, with partners such as Saint-Tokyo, Disney, Jaguar, Henkel, Avito and Happy Gifts. In the Spring/Summer 2017 season, the company’s socks complemented the runway collections of famous Russian brands – Viva Vox; Sorry, I'm not; Dasha Gauser; and Artem Krivda.

The brand also worked together with the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, to develop a limited-edition range of socks inspired by the works of Russian avant-gardists from the collections of the gallery. The brand named the collection Supremus. It replicated the motives of the picturesque and graphic works of Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Klyun, Ilya Chashnik, Mikhail Larionov, and Lyubov Popova.

The company produces its socks from 80% combed cotton, in addition to using polyamide and elastane, at its factory, and the socks feature an anatomic elastic band and reinforced heels and toes for maximum wearer’s comfort. The patterns, which make the brand’s socks stand out are knitted as part of the sock construction.

www.myfriday.ru