Angelina Jolie is set to open her socially conscious fashion studio Atelier Jolie in November at New York City’s 57 Great Jones Street. The building is known for its famously graffitied storefront and a history of hosting celebrated creatives. The spray paint on the three-story structure’s historic façade is not your standard wall tagging, but rather a tribute to perhaps the greatest street artist of the 20th century: Jean-Michel Basquiat. It’s also what attracted Jolie to the building when she was looking for real estate for Atelier Jolie, which she has described as a workshop and creative studio for underserved tailors and artisans. The venue’s deep connection to the art world began when Andy Warhol purchased it in 1970. Later, Basquiat rented an apartment and studio in the building in 1983 until his death in 1988. “[Jolie] loved the façade of the building and it being tagged up with the street art as a memorial for Basquiat,” Garrett Kelly, a director at Meridian Capital Group, who held the listing, told ArtNews.
But according to a new interview with Vogue, it was Jolie’s 18-year-old daughter Zahara whose approval really sealed the deal on the property. “The moment they walked through the door, they knew the search was over,” the publication states of the mom and daughter. The actor tells Vogue that she isn’t always the most measured decision maker in the family and thus looked to Zahara for her input. “I can be very impulsive, but Zahara is so grounded, decisive, and thoughtful,” Jolie said. “When she agreed, I felt we were both decided.”
The mother of six told Vogue that she considers a venture of this magnitude to be a family project. During the renovation stage, original art by Pax, Jolie’s 19-year-old son and eldest child, could be seen on-site: a canvas draped over the entryway had been spray-painted with the Atelier Jolie logo. “That was my son practicing,” Jolie told Vogue of Pax’s handiwork. With Basquiat’s graffiti still intact in the studio (the tag SAMO, a phrase Basquiat coined with friend and fellow artist Al Diaz, remains scrawled across the concrete floor), it’s no wonder the space encourages creative expression.
Jolie signed an eight-year lease on the 60,000-square-foot space and plans to keep the exterior of the building as is to honor Basquiat. The interiors will be customized for artisans to work and showcase their designs. The light-filled loft, with its high ceilings and exposed rafters, has been outfitted with benches made of reclaimed wood for the incoming tailors.
The property’s unique history goes beyond its connection to the famed American artists. Before Warhol purchased it, the gangster Paul Kelly (born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli) owned the building, where he opened the Brighton Athletic Club in 1904. Most recently, the building housed Bohemian, an exclusive Japanese restaurant. Warhol also previously owned the building next door, 342 Bowery.
