Henri Matisse is by no means the only artist to have designed a scarf, however in June 2011, the fashion and art worlds were thrown into somewhat of a ferment by news that a scarf designed by Henri Matisse had fetched £3m (AUS$5.2 million) at Christie’s. Océanie, la Mer was 173.5 x 387.5cm of linen, dyed a particular golden colour to evoke the light of Tahiti, and printed with a dancing dreamscape of birds, seaweed, coral and sponges.

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From the early to mid twentieth century Matisse, Dufy, Picasso, Derain, Calder, Moore and even the slightly harder edged modernist British abstract painter Ben Nicolson all designed scarfs. Many of our greatest artists believe then, as they do now, that beauty is to be found everywhere and indeed beauty is to be used and useful.

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Flowers burst out from Alesandro Ljubicic’s large, textured canvases. Sweeps and daubs of vivid colour convey his intense response to the beauty of nature. Whorls and waves of different colours resist blending together, competing to be the most vibrant. The trace of Ljubicic’s brush and palette knife are clearly visible on his scarf; dragging and scooping thick layers of oil paint to create the imagery of sculptural surfaces on fine silk.

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Digital printing technology enables detailed photographic images like these to be transposed onto silk to create wearable forms of artwork. A depth of colours and fine textu

res appear on exquisite silk – the nature of which is, in itself, luminous – the silk fibres reflect light, adding a subtle glow to the vibrant palette of Alesandro Ljubicic’s flowers.

The scarf is produced in collaboration with the extraordinarily talented team of Kmossed.