Taft McWhorter is taking a spin from abstract canvas painting and making his art wearable. The Houston artist has joined forces with marketing specialist and close friend Brian Dubiski to combine their enthusiasm for fashion with his talent as a successful painter. This unique collaboration is taking form as a collection called Mojo Fashion.
The Mojo Fashion line consists of women’s shoes handmade in Italy and painted by McWhorter, men’s bow ties painted on canvas by McWhorter and handcrafted by Houston artist Trish Motolina, and beautiful scarves inspired and printed from his original paintings. Each item is a unique piece of art.
“This fashion line allows someone to wear their favorite piece of art while being 100 percent original,” McWhorter explained.
McWhorter’s journey into fashion began when his wife, Dana Taft, asked him to create a pair of shoes for her to wear. She wasn’t thrilled with his first attempt, and suggested he reproduce one of his beautiful abstract paintings onto another pair. He did and she loved them so much that she now has at least a dozen pairs of these one-of-a-kind beauties in her closet.
Dubiski saw an opportunity to combine his fashion marketing savvy with McWhorter’s talents as a painter and the duo launched Mojo Fashion in late June. In addition to shoes, bow ties, scarves, and yoga pants, which are available online and at the Silos on Sawyer, they also hope to add dresses and men’s sport coats to this eclectic fashion line. (Ties retail for $105, scarves for $99 and yoga pants for $88; shoes are $399 or you can bring your own pair in and choose the color scheme and McWhorter will hand paint them for $249.)
And one day they hope to be showing their collections in New York and Paris Fashion Week.
Taft McWhorter at work at Convenant House charity gala.
A staircase in Gucci's signature Rosso Ancora leads shoppers to the second floor. Photo by Pablo Enriquez for Gucci
Houston Galleria will be one of the first boutiques to open with Gucci’s latest store window concept, Endless Narratives.Photo by Pablo Enriquez for Gucci
