{"id":236618,"date":"2025-09-18T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236618\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:09:10","slug":"helen-frankenthaler-inspires-ulla-johnsons-spring-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236618\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Frankenthaler Inspires Ulla Johnson&#8217;s Spring Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/t\/ulla-johnson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ulla-johnson\" data-tag=\"ulla-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ulla Johnson<\/a> looked to Expressionist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/t\/helen-frankenthaler\/\" id=\"auto-tag_helen-frankenthaler\" data-tag=\"helen-frankenthaler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Helen Frankenthaler<\/a> as lodestar for her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/fashion-news\/designer-luxury\/michael-rider-celine-campaign-spring-2026-1238154290\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">spring<\/a>\u00a0collection, the next chapter after collaborating with female artists Lee Krasner, Anna Zem\u00e1nkov\u00e1, and Shara Hughes. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cShe struggled with the meaning of the word beautiful,\u201d Johnson said of Frankenthaler\u2019s work, adding that she also thinks of the idea in her collections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tInviting the fashion crowd uptown to the Beaux Arts Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a few blocks away from her new Upper East Side boutique, Johnson\u2019s idea of beauty is as ornate as her location, explaining that \u201cpretty and feminine\u201d are ideas not often taken to mean \u201cserious or powerful.\u201d Questioning whether these ideas are reductive, Johnson is digging in, embracing it full on.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/HELEN-FRANKENTHALER-Concerto.jpg\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/HELEN-FRANKENTHALER-Concerto.jpg\" alt=\"Helen Frankenthaler's Concerto (1982). The painting sold for $2.1 million with fees at a Christie's auction in New York on February 27.\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tEnter her range of gauzy, abstract, color-filled pieces by way of Frankenthaler\u2019s work, embellishments abounded: fringe, feathers, and ruffles. There was a lot of transparency and buoyancy in the movement of the collection. \u201cThat gave the sense of lightness, this weightless way of feeling both powerful and completely yourself,\u201d she said of the prairie dresses, printed denim, bow blouses, and lightweight capes.<\/p>\n<p>She centered three of Frankenthaler\u2019s paintings\u2014\u201cWestern Dream,\u201d \u201cNature Abhors a Vacuum,\u201d and \u201cMoon Tide\u201d\u2014which gave her a bright color palette of green, purple, peach, and rose mixed with caramel browns on floating dresses with ruffles and coats; they were even realized in sequin on skirts and tops. A few handbags also came in bright colors, each inspired by movement. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe collection was strongest when she showed restraint, as in a strapless dress where the colors blended to the floor or a hand crochet knit dress. Other pieces might be a heavy lift, with a mix of ideas with peplums and volume-filled sleeves creating a bit of sartorial dissonance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI think a sense of life and joy is something that I\u2019ve really sought to convey,\u201d she said of her collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulla Johnson looked to Expressionist Helen Frankenthaler as lodestar for her\u00a0spring\u00a0collection, the next chapter after collaborating with female&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,127033,127034,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-236618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-helen-frankenthaler","13":"tag-ulla-johnson","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115225936992031659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}