Why You Should Wear Art, Not Junk

(Scooter LaForge and Patricia Field)

“I should’ve brought you a Slurpee,” says Scooter LaForge as we settle onto a stoop behind the Patricia Field store. His large cup—cherry limeade sandwiched between Sour Patch watermelon—looks like an extension of his outfit: a houndstooth blazer adorned with a Boy George pin, patches, and a paper rose.

LaForge is gearing up for Wear Art, Not Junk!, an exhibition-benefit this Saturday at Patricia Field. In addition to premiering a new line with Field, LaForge is asking guests to participate, drawing whatever they want on 40 pairs of donated Dr. Marten boots. “Dr. Marten’s tagline is ‘Stand for something,’” says LaForge. “So you can write whatever you stand for here: Say ‘fuck you’ or draw a flower.”

In advance of the event, LaForge lugged two pairs to parties, art openings, and through the streets near his SoHo studio. A stranger on her way to a job interview wrote “Fuck the man.” Grace Jones wrote her name at her book signing. After touching over a hundred hands, LaForge drizzled house paint over the boots. A kind of social sculpture, the paint is intended to chip off over time, slowly revealing peoples’ messages.

The boots will retail at Patricia Field for $200, with 100 percent of proceeds going to Children of Armenia Fund. APigeon, an electronic singer from Montreal, will also perform. Beyond boots, the new line features LaForge’s playful homoeroticism, pop art motifs, and plenty of sequins on Gucci suits and vintage Y-3.

For the artist, who also works on more traditional canvases, seeing his pieces on the street provides a unique experience. “It brings a tear to my eye,” he says. “I mean, I’ve sold $25,000 paintings to big organizations, but when I see a teenage girl wearing my shirt on the street, that really gets to me.”

Wear Art, Not Junk!, October 17 at Patricia Field, 306 Bowery, (btwn Bleecker/E Houston Sts), 7-9pm.