First there was Murakami for Vuit­ton,
Then there was James Jean for Prada,
And hell, you could even count Fafi for MAC…
but now, I think I can offi­cially declare this designer-clothing-companies-hiring-illustrators-who-are-famous-in-their-own-right-thing a trend—-

because woah, man…we’ve got Paul Pope for DKNY:

Check out this video about some of Paul’s process on the project:

Paul has been a long­time hero of mine, and I feel like these designs really used his exist­ing aes­thetic in all the best ways pos­si­ble.
I’m espe­cially a fan of the butterfly-wing camo.
The designs are beau­ti­ful, and I’m really look­ing for­ward to see­ing what other work they do together.

This, how­ever, leaves me spec­u­lat­ing where this trend goes from here. 

Will we have Audrey Kawasaki for Vera Wang?
Kozyn­dan for Marc Jacobs?

Will the cloth­ing lines add more crossover fans for these artist’s work?
Will a Prada or DKNY wearer end up buy­ing a James Jean or Paul Pope comic?
Or will the whole thing implode in a few months? Will these illus­tra­tors sud­denly become “SO last season”?

Only time will tell, but I sure am curi­ous to see what happens.