ULLA JOHNSON EMBRACES BEAUTY, FEMININITY & FRANKENTHALER

Camz
Sep 16
2 min read

The dream collaboration

Ulla Johnson has made a habit of working hand in hand with women artists or their estates. Lee Krasner, Anna Zemánková, Shara Hughes… the list already reads like a refined art history syllabus. But Helen Frankenthaler was, in Johnson’s own words, “the dream.” And somehow, as if through sheer willpower mixed with relentless work, she managed to make it happen.

That drive is evident not only in this collaboration but also in her latest accomplishment: a new flagship store, standing not far from her show at the Cooper Hewitt. Proof that Johnson is as pragmatic as she is poetic.

The looks: weightless fabrics and whorls of color

The new collection takes that decision and runs with it. Or rather, floats with it. Diaphanous, weightless fabrics swirled down the runway, punctuated with feather embellishments and fringes.

Frankenthaler’s signature colors rippled across dresses and separates, appearing not just in print but also across Johnson’s growing bag range.

This wasn’t a timid use of reference; it leaned in hard, with looks that seemed to dissolve into air, as if the hemline itself didn’t know where to stop. Prettiness, it turns out, can be radical when it refuses to stay within the lines.

The paintings as limitless space

Johnson’s team worked directly with three Frankenthaler paintings: Western Dream, Nature Abhors a Vacuum, and Moon Tide. What inspired Johnson most was Frankenthaler’s decision to lay her canvases on the floor. “When she put it on the floor, Frankenthaler felt like the border of the canvas became limitless. And that sense of being freed up without constraints, where really the edge can blur forever, was very inspiring for us.”

That philosophy translated into clothes that looked as if they had no beginning and no end. A hem dissolving into fringe, a sleeve whispering into transparency, a bag blurring into color.

More details... The accessories

The accessories followed the same philosophy as the clothes: soft yet striking. Johnson expanded her bag range with Frankenthaler’s color washes swirling across the leather, transforming each piece into a portable canvas.

They were less about practicality and more about carrying a fragment of the artist’s limitless edge; proof that even an everyday object can blur into art.

Conclusion: strength in softness, with a wink

For now, Johnson’s embrace of beauty and femininity is a welcome and overdue gesture. The collection was a weightless celebration of prettiness, freed from the anxiety of whether it’s serious enough.

And if the only real question left is whether Frankenthaler would have worn these looks to the grocery store, then Johnson has already succeeded in making us think. After all, not every brushstroke or hemline, needs to be practical. Some can simply be beautiful, and that in itself is powerful.

ALL THE LOOKS FROM THE COLLECTION: