The creative nexus of art, history, and craft has found its ultimate expression in the collaboration between the American luxury brand Bode and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Centered on Alexander Calder’s beloved kinetic masterpiece, Calder’s Circus (1926–1931), the project transcends mere merchandising, offering a sophisticated dialogue between the artist’s enduring ingenuity and designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla’s ethos of nostalgia and material storytelling. Calder’s humble figures—constructed from wire, cork, and fabric—inspired an eight-piece capsule collection that perfectly mirrors Bode’s dedication to celebrating the handmade, the personal narrative, and the transformative power of imagination. This partnership, coinciding with the “High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100” exhibition, sets a new standard for how cultural institutions and fashion houses can truly honor a legacy.
The Enduring Magic of Calder’s Miniature Masterpiece
Alexander Calder’s Calder’s Circus is an artwork that defies its small scale. Constructed while the American artist was living in Paris, it is a playful, detailed world of acrobats, clowns, and animals crafted from everyday materials.
The Whitney Museum’s acquisition of the piece in 1983 cemented its status as an iconic work of American art. However, its true magic lies in its performative history; throughout the 1950s, Calder himself would animate the entire two-hour spectacle for audiences that included artistic peers like Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró. The centennial exhibition, “High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100” (running from October to March 9, 2026), gives museum-goers an unprecedented view. By spacing the fragile contents across five display cases, the exhibition allows viewers an up-close look at the simple mechanization—the strings, the wires, and the eggbeater cranks—that brought these tiny figures to life.
According to Whitney curator Jennie Goldstein, the exhibition serves to highlight the circus’s enduring conceptual influence on Calder’s later, abstract work, focusing on themes like spatiality, rigging, constant motion, and spectacle. The show also features rare archival material, including a splendid video of Calder performing the acts and original ephemera, such as the set of suitcases the artist used to store and transport his motley crew of performers, adding a poignant historical layer to the display.
Bode’s Heritage of Narrative and Craftsmanship
The choice of Bode for this high-profile collaboration was no accident; the brand’s entire philosophy is a natural aesthetic and thematic match for the whimsical, handmade world of Calder’s Circus.
Helmed by founder and designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla, the American luxury brand is celebrated for its distinctive garments that champion craft, nostalgia, and upcycled fabrics. Bode’s signature style—patchwork carpenter jackets, embroidered knits, and crochet totes—is built on preserving memory through craft, which deeply aligns with Calder’s construction of figures from studio scraps and everyday materials. This synergy was reinforced by a serendipitous personal discovery: the designer’s own family had once been involved in making circus wagons. Whitney’s director of retail, Jack Sachs, noted this poetic connection, stating that Bode has redefined how fashion can be rooted simultaneously in the past and present, a magic also found in Calder’s ability to transform simple materials into something living.
Bode Aujla confirms this resonance, emphasizing that “personal narratives and historical research are the foundation of how I design.” This approach ensures the capsule collection is an authentic tribute rather than a simple branding exercise. The collaboration reinforces the idea that true imagination and ingenuity can turn the most humble of inputs into culturally resonant works of art, whether they are historical figures made of wire or contemporary garments made of salvaged textiles.
The Capsule Collection: Translating Art into Wearable Memory
The eclectic eight-piece capsule collection, designed by Bode Aujla in collaboration with the museum and the Calder Foundation, directly channels the playful charm and specific elements of Calder’s Circus.
Key pieces translate famous circus characters and archival ephemera into wearable objects. Highlights include an embroidered brooch of the yarn-laden lion head from the artist’s iconic lion-tamer scene, and a fringed skirt inspired by the costume of Fanni, the Belly Dancer, whose rhinestone- and fiery-fringed outfit is one of the Circus’s most memorable figures. The design ethos is highly illustrative: a red-and-white-striped long-sleeve button-down shirt is hand-painted in Bode’s New York studio with Calder’s illustrations of animals, and a red pocket square features the name “FANNI” in white stitched-felt letters, paying homage to the dancer’s performance banner.
The collection also makes clever use of rare archival material. The orange Calder Identity Card Tee, for instance, displays a 1926 photo of Calder on its front, while the back features a past French newspaper review of Calder’s Circus. Another standout, a luggage-like wooden box, is inspired by the artist’s set of traveling suitcases, complete with reproductions of hotel labels and travel stamps. These detailed references ensure that the collection acts as a tactile historical document, inviting wearers to become custodians of Calder’s legacy.
Setting a New Bar for Cultural Collaborations
The collaboration between Bode and the Whitney Museum represents a significant elevation of the standard for museum-retail partnerships, moving past simple logo placement to deeply integrated artistic interpretation.
Instead of merely reproducing existing artworks, Bode Aujla delved into the process, material, and context of Calder’s work. Her approach—treating the artist’s studio scraps and personal ephemera as source material for high fashion—allowed for a new, imaginative interpretation that feels authentic to both the artist and the designer. The designer’s own Fall 2025 collection, which used miniature handmade dolls and sets, further illustrated the uncanny synergy with Calder’s world of handcrafted figures, solidifying the idea that Bode is not just selling a product but preserving a memory through craft.
The complexity and specificity of the Calder-inspired creations demonstrate the power of deep, sustained research and artistic commitment. This partnership successfully leveraged the cultural weight of the Whitney Museum and the historical depth of the Calder Foundation to create a collection that is as much an educational tribute as it is a commercial success, redefining the boundaries of what museum and retail collaborations can truly achieve.
