Look Mate in sock collab with Hayward Gallery, Benjamin Craven

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 22, 2018

British sock brand Look Mate has teamed up with designer Benjamin Craven and art/tourist destination The Hayward Gallery in London to celebrate the gallery’s re-opening this spring, and its 50th anniversary with its first major UK retrospective of the work of German photographer Andreas Gursky.

Look Mate has unveiled a new sock design, the Hayward Gallery Edition, which was commissioned by the gallery and is now being sold exclusively in the gallery shop. 

Designer and illustrator Benjamin Craven took his inspiration from everyday sights and occurrences, from the bright colours of the supermarket aisles to architectural collisions, to blend of high, low and everything else. 

The surroundings and minutiae of everyday life are Craven’s source of inspiration and through his work, he sets out to encourage the viewer to appreciate the playfulness in art and life with a fun, pop aesthetic.

So what does that mean for the Hayward Gallery design? It’s a landmark Brutalist building and is currently hosting the emblematic sites and scenes of the global economy and contemporary life portrayed in Gursky’s works. So the new sock has several “striking and adventurous features” Craven wanted to capture, including the angles and textures of the building and the changes that have been made there.  

For the first time ever, the gallery’s pyramid roof lights allow natural light into the spaces below and these too are represented in the collaboration. But while the gallery from the outside is marked by the greyness of its look, Craven’s inventive use of colour reflects the colourful approach of the Look Mate brand overall and much of the art it exhibits. 
 
Craven said: “It was hard to not get carried away. Concentrating on the iconic robot face, I felt like this was a great opportunity to play with colour and patterns. Everyone needs a jazzy sock.”

Look Mate was started three years  ago by two brothers, Vahan and Vahagn Hovhannisyan, who wanted to make a product but also to work with creatives. Its collections are available on a subscription basis as well as in its e-store.