Sky Excessive Farm Takes Vogue Upstate

There are specific issues the style business will at all times love: The younger and delightful. Artwork and cash. Nostalgia. A comeback. On occasion, it additionally likes to throw itself behind a trigger.

By these metrics, Dan Colen is giving style loads to like proper now. A blue-chip artist represented by the mega-gallery Gagosian, he co-founded a farm known as Sky Excessive that donates 100% of its meals to native pantries in upstate New York. However 20 years in the past, Mr. Colen, now 44, was a important character in a forged of lovely damaged boys (nicknamed Warhol’s Kids) who grew to become the artwork world protagonists of New York Metropolis’s peak indie sleaze second — an period for which style is at the moment throbbing with longing.

Among the many notorious work from that point have been the “hamster nests” Mr. Colen created with Sprint Snow. (The 2 did copious quantities of medicine, then rolled round bare in shredded cellphone books.) Mr. Snow ejaculated on newspapers whereas Ryan McGinley photographed the entire scene, together with Mr. Colen’s oft-mentioned genitals. However that was then.

Now, along with the farm, Mr. Colen is the chief artistic officer of Sky Excessive Farm Universe, which sells merch and could be discovered on many style hounds who might also be seen carrying luxurious manufacturers.

The Sky Excessive Farm Universe brand includes a girlish strawberry sitting on a boyish crescent moon, which serves because the widespread thread throughout a number of Sky Excessive Farm Universe objects spanning hoodies, T-shirts, knits, socks, hats and underwear. Some items are basic, like a denim chore jacket. A lot of the gathering is constructed from deadstock or upcycled supplies. All of it’s customary streetwear fare, ranging in worth from $30 to $2,500 and bought at locations like Ssense, Nordstrom and Dover Avenue Market.

“It’s cute,” Olivia Kim, the senior vice chairman for artistic merchandising at Nordstrom, stated of the gathering. “It’s cool. However then there’s naturally the inquisitiveness of ‘Why is that this known as Sky Excessive Farm Universe?’ There’s the automated query of ‘What does this truly imply? Who’s behind this?’”

So What Is Sky Excessive Farm?

Situated on a 40-acre property within the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, Sky Excessive is an earnest operation fueled by a mission of “meals sovereignty,” which mainly boils right down to folks rising and consuming recent, regionally produced meals, however which, in its founders’ telling, can also be a lofty imaginative and prescient tackling philanthropy, capitalism, local weather change, social justice and training.

“It’s actually a mannequin,” stated Mr. Colen, now sober and vulnerable to sweeping philosophical solutions and large concepts. “We’re attempting to help the following era of farmers who farm in the way in which that we accomplish that that everyone can eat the type of meals that we develop.”

Mr. Colen purchased the land on a quest to get out of New York Metropolis and, he stated, “commune with nature.” He was additionally searching for extra space to create artwork.

“I had no relationships in agriculture,” he stated. “It grew to become clear that if I used to be going to have an intimate relationship with this place, I used to be going to should domesticate it.”

First the Sky, Then the Universe

Sky Excessive Farm Universe is a separate LLC accounting for all of the clothes, equipment, meals, beverage and sweetness tasks and collaborations. It operates like a standard for-profit firm, besides {that a} portion of income are donated again to the farm. “Each buyer is a donor” is its tagline.

Mr. Colen and his staff provide you with the designs, whereas Dover Avenue Market Paris handles manufacturing, gross sales and distribution as a part of its model company.

Just like the strawberry to the moon, the style and artwork worlds have curled up tight on Sky Excessive’s lap. Since Sky Excessive Farm Universe’s inception in 2022, it has finished $5.5 million in gross sales and is now accessible at 60 retailers. It has attracted a roster of in-crowd collaborators, together with Samira Nasr, the editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar; Alastair McKimm, the stylist and former editor in chief of i-D; Mel Ottenberg, the editor in chief of Interview; the photographers Quil Lemons and previous pal Ryan McGinley; and Heidi Bivens, the costume designer for “Euphoria.”

Balenciaga, Bogs, Dickies and Denim Tears have partnered with SHFU. There’s additionally an ongoing collaboration with Converse that features Sky Excessive Chuck Taylors, in addition to with Nike and the artist KAWS. Final 12 months Sky Excessive launched its first beverage, a Honey Pop gluten-free, probiotic glowing water produced by FedUp Meals that was bought at Erewhon. This month, Sky Excessive ventures into magnificence with a hand cream in collaboration with the clear magnificence model and fellow farm proprietor Tata Harper.

In Might, the glamour flock will descend on Tivoli, N.Y., when Sky Excessive hosts its Spring Picnic fund-raiser for fairness within the meals system. The Roots are performing, and the host and advisory committees learn like a seating chart for the entrance row of a style present: Chioma Nnadi, the editor of British Vogue, Kate Younger, the celeb stylist, Derek Blasberg, Tommy Dorfman, Marc Jacobs, Kim Hastreiter, Chloë Sevigny, Laila Gohar and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler. The company sponsors for the occasion embody Chanel, Champion, Gagosian, JanSport, Levi’s and Nike.

‘I see this as a sculpture.’

On a tour of Sky Excessive Farm’s grounds in late February, nothing was rising within the lifeless of winter. About one-and-a-half acres of the land are dedicated to vegetable manufacturing with one other 25 as pasture for cows, sheep and chickens.

Mr. Colen’s residence, the place he lives along with his associate, the bread artist and mannequin Lexie Smith, and their younger son, sits on the finish of a driveway close to a renovated barn that homes his artwork studio. Mr. Colen has by no means thought of himself something however an artist. He sees the farm as certainly one of his sculptures.

If not a family title, Mr. Colen is among the best-known and most profitable up to date artists of his era.

“We have been all functioning junkies,” stated Javier Peres, the founding father of Peres Initiatives, the gallery that represented Mr. Colen from 2003 to round 2011. “However Dan’s concepts have been simply flowing. They have been grander than what he may do on his personal, however he had it in him.”

When Mr. Snow died of a heroin overdose at age 27 in 2009, the occasion was successfully over. Mr. Colen received sober and launched into life upstate. The marketplace for his artwork was flourishing, and he funded the nascent phases of Sky Excessive himself.

“The artwork world was like, cash was falling out of the sky in 2010 and 2015,” he stated.

The start of the farm was a blur. Mr. Colen known as a graphic designer named Jordan Rosenblum who had finished an internship at a farm. “Actually, he got here up right here, and we tried to make a farm, no matter meaning,” Mr. Colen stated. “We had some shovels.”

They didn’t get very far, however Mr. Rosenblum launched Mr. Colen to the idea of meals deserts, which means locations the place there isn’t any entry to recent, nutritious meals, locations just like the Bronx. Mr. Colen grew up simply throughout the Hudson River in Leonia, N.J.

“As any individual who likes to create issues, the concept that I may create a instrument to serve this concern appeared actually fascinating to me,” Mr. Colen stated.

By way of his artwork studio he discovered an actual farmer, Joey Piecuch, a fellow recovering heroin addict, who moved to Sky Excessive and truly received to tilling the land and elevating livestock. Collectively he and Mr. Colen got here up with the farm’s title.

“It was a little bit of a joke,” Mr. Colen stated. “We have been two junkies who have been type of doing this very type, benevolent work.”

From the start, Mr. Colen didn’t need the farm to be a standard enterprise. As an alternative of promoting its bounty, the farm would give all of it away. He enlisted his childhood buddy Joshua Bardfield, who labored extensively in public well being. They began working with the Meals Financial institution for New York Metropolis.

“There was no funds, there was no plan,” Mr. Colen stated. Nothing was papered.”

But the inkling for branding was there. Mr. Colen commissioned the illustrator Joana Avillez to provide you with a brand. She drew on the Disney icons which were a recurring theme in Mr. Colen’s work.

“The farm could be very Walt Disney, having all these animals,” she stated. It’s idyllic.”

The strawberry moon was initially used for jams and vegetable salts that Mr. Colen bottled and gave as presents. “Folks appreciated it,” he stated. “It was all home made. The jars have been cute. It was like, What else can occur right here?

“Dan at all times had greater sights,” stated Melissa Bent, his first gallerist at Rivington Arms, the small however influential gallery then on the Decrease East Facet. “He had a photograph of Picasso nailed to the highest of his work space at his grandfather’s junk store in Brooklyn. He needed all of it.”

Oh, to Be Like Patagonia

Sky Excessive Farm first received its 501c3 standing, making it a nonprofit exempt from federal taxes, in 2016, however it was largely dormant till 2019. Mr. Bardfield joined the farm full time and is now the co-executive director and a member of its board. Round that point, Mr. Colen approached James Gilchrist, an previous buddy from his Warhol’s Kids period, who’s now vice chairman of Dover Avenue Market USA and Comme des Garçons USA. They got here up with Sky Excessive’s first fund-raising challenge: an assortment of classic T-shirts and hoodies bearing Ms. Avillez’s brand and a choice of jams and honey that have been bought at Dover Avenue Market Los Angeles and New York. The entire proceeds went again to the farm.

It did so nicely, Mr. Gilchrist determined to develop Sky Excessive as certainly one of Dover Avenue’s manufacturers. “It’s been a loopy success,” he stated.

The place Mr. Colen goes, folks observe. “He’s at all times been somebody who has taken a bit bit extra initiative, a pacesetter throughout the group,” Mr. McGinley stated. “I bear in mind after we have been younger, he stated to me, ‘We must be actual artists, and we have to get a studio.’ I used to be simply type of content material dwelling in our little tiny condominium within the East Village.”

Certainly, a number of taking initiative goes on up at Sky Excessive Farm. Additionally, a number of speaking about initiatives. (They name it “dialoguing.”) Different buzzwords invoked repeatedly are “beneficence,” “fairness,” “capitalism” and “philanthropy.” Their north stars are corporations like Newman’s Personal, which has donated greater than $600 million to charitable causes, and Patagonia, whose founder Yvon Chouinard transferred possession of the corporate to a specifically designed belief and nonprofit to make sure that the corporate’s income go to local weather change and environmental causes. Mr. Colen deems Patagonia “the best model on this planet.”

Pulling It Off

Between all of Sky Excessive Farm’s merchandise, collabs, massive program plans and fancy associates, it’s straightforward to overlook that its main mission is offering meals entry for many who don’t have it. In 2023, Sky Excessive Farm donated 19,306 kilos of greens and recent herbs, together with broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro, 56,880 eggs, 6,408 kilos of hen and 1,750 kilos of beef and lamb.

The bulk goes to hyperlocal companions, together with Candy Freedom Farm, Dutchess Outreach, Lengthy Desk Harvest, Willow Roots and North East Group Heart. “About 95 p.c of the meals we produce stays inside 15 to twenty miles of the farm,” Mr. Bardfield stated.

Lisa Zayas co-founded Willow Root, a meals pantry in Pine Plains, N.Y., 4 years in the past, serving about 20 households. Throughout Covid, that quantity jumped to 70 households.

“Sky Excessive was proper there, giving us produce, chickens, eggs,” Ms. Zayas stated. “Their chickens are stunning, large. They feed a household with leftovers, no downside.” She’s largely unaware of Mr. Colen’s profile outdoors of Pine Plains. “I don’t know Dan because the artist,” she stated. “I’ve heard issues, however that doesn’t curiosity me.”

The pandemic introduced the urgency of meals shortage into sharp aid. “With Covid, folks noticed their neighbors lining up at meals banks to get meals,” Mr. Bardfield stated. “The problems that we’ve been addressing for the final a few years have been on the forefront.” It was the catalyst for Sky Excessive’s growth, activating the 501c3, staffing up, increasing the model and elevating cash.

Sky Excessive Farm is within the means of shifting from the 40-acre plot in Pine Plains to a 560-acre unfold a number of miles away. There’s room for greater pastures, extra vegetable manufacturing, 40 acres for a farm enterprise incubator and a number of land. Plans for a way it will likely be used are TBD, however its founders hope they are going to contain climate-related analysis, together with habitat biodiversity, carbon sequestration, soil well being, water high quality and air high quality.

Sky Excessive runs a grant program that distributes funds to small regenerative farms with a concentrate on marginalized teams.

Training is an enormous focus. This fall, Sky Excessive Farm Universe is collaborating with Champion for a set of merchandise destined for the bookstores of universities with sturdy farming and agricultural applications.

Through the years, folks have typically requested Mr. Colen how he has been in a position pull this entire factor off.

“I made it utilizing my artwork mind,” he stated. “As an artist, actually, it’s laborious to truly pursue this, however in idea, what I need to make, no one would ever know was artwork.”