Archives 12 March 2023

When the Snap Cardigan put on a show

1986, 1996, 2019, the iconic snap cardigan has been under the spotlight many times and inspire artists. 

The snap cardigan will celebrate its 44th birthday in 2023. But pretty much since its inception in 1979, it has been an item apart from the rest of the line. Customers would rush the rue du Jour shop to buy this open sweatshirt, whose buttons reminded Agnès of a Renaissance garment. 

As early as 1986, agnès b. gives carte blanche for artists to create works around her cardigan, and exposes their work in the Galerie du Jour. "PHOTOGRAPHERS… ARTISTS AND THE SNAP CARDIGAN" is a success which ends up in 1996 at the Pompidou Museum. In 2019, for the forty years of this "adult garment for kids, or the opposite," Agnès imagines a new version of this exhibition with 60 new artists (including Annette Messager, Ed Temleton, Juergen Teller…) and the whole affair is exposed rue Dieu. The exhibition will end up travelling to both New York and Hong Kong.

In the video below, some artists of this exhibition tell of their own personal approach to the snap cardigan.