A Denim Garden Grows in San Francisco
Denim’s industrial history in America is being celebrated through a new art installation in San Francisco.
The project, titled “The Secret Garden,” is the result of a collaboration between British artist Ian Berry and Italian denim finisher Tonello. In 2017, Ian and Tonello joined forces for the first time to stage a Secret Garden-themed installation at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York. Since then, the two parties have continued to work together to blend denim and art.
“Having the opportunity to work with Ian Berry is always amazing,” said Alice Tonello, head of marketing and R&D at Tonello. “We are using denim in a different and inspiring way, and it’s something that in the industry usually doesn’t happen.”
The Secret Garden is a permanent installation at San Francisco’s Flower Mart. Indigo flowers, vines and leaves crafted out of denim fabric dangle from a hanging trellis, creating a botanical curtain in the windows.
“Denim has been a medium for me over 15 years and one thing I love the most about it, is the history though time and its symbolism but also its origins,” Ian said. “Representing the Flower Mart in the material famed in the city dating back to the 1870s and the official fabric of California will show that the great new building respects and embraces the city’s heritage.”
Secret Garden was commissioned by Kilroy Realty for its Flower Mart Innovation Center. This facility was set up to honor the history of the Flower Mart while also showcasing the plans for the market’s future development in a new location.
“The democratic nature of this famed material is also a mark of this project’s preservation of blue-collared jobs and a bridge between the old and the new in this innovation,” Ian noted. “And of course, denim transcends all boundaries all over the world and ever since the 1800s, the Flower Mart has been ethnically diverse, and this history should be celebrated.”
As part of Ian’s homage to American industrialism, the denim for the Secret Garden was sourced from Cone Denim’s White Oak plant in Greensboro, North Carolina, the last denim mill in the United States.
Tonello’s contribution to the project included laser cutting and finishing dozens of yards of denim using 100 percent sustainable finishing techniques, including Laser Blaze and its All-In-One System that achieves multiple processes with a single machine to save resources and energy. Among the All-In-One innovations used in the making of flowers and leaves was ECOfree2 technology, which uses the ozone in water and air to create a natural bleaching effect.
During the course of the project, Ian visited Tonello in Italy to meet with the team.
“When [Ian] asked us about this new project, we were so happy and so proud to be part of it,” Alice said. “The installation in the San Francisco Flower Mart is an example of how collaborations and friendships can lead to unexpected and surprising results as well as portraying a message in a beautiful way.”
In addition to the installation in San Francisco, Ian recently broadcast from his studio during Amsterdam Denim Days. He also has a current solo exhibit at the Levi Strauss Museum in the denim brand founder’s birth home in Buttenheim, Germany. Timed to mark the 20th anniversary of the museum, the exhibit is up until Nov. 8, after which Ian’s work will embark on a world tour.