Employees of the legendary Chateau Marmont boutique hotel in Los Angeles came across a trove of fashion world treasure last week when they unearthed a box of original sketches by the influential Stephen Sprouse, who died in 2004 at 50 years old.
Famous for his iconic graffiti-print Louis Vuitton totes, tastemaker Stephen Sprouse was in Andy Warhol’s inner circle, contributing frequently to Interview Magazine and designing one-off collections for Bergdorf Goodman’s, Barney’s and Target.
However, despite his creative talent and industry connections, commercial success evaded Sprouse–and this led to the origin of the mysterious sketches.
According to my source, Sprouse stayed in the Chateau Marmont for over a month in the late 1990s, but when it came time to settle his tab, Sprouse admitted to proprietor Andre Balazs that he had nothing to give. He was destitute.
Recorgnizing an opportunity, Balazs asked Sprouse to draft six original sketches for the hotel as payment. He complied, apparently, but the drawing were lost in storage–until employees found it while sifting through storage in the hotel’s attic last week.
One of the original sketches follows:
Chateau Marmont is taking the opportunity– and recent buzz around Stephen Sprouse’s name and recent book launch for The Stephen Sprouse Book— to launch a series of commemorative postcards, and, no doubt, justify their cred in the cut-throat spheres of art and fashion.
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