London artist Ian Berry creates denim billboard for Levi’s at Milan Design Week

Artist Ian Berry (born in Huddersfield and now based in Poplar, East London) creates artwork solely from recycled denim and for his latest work he’s made a billboard for jeans titan Levi’s using his signature medium.

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Levi 501s the enormous piece debuted last month in Paris’s Place de la République and is now moving to Milan for Design Week (from April 17 to 23), followed by Madrid’s Plaza del Callao from May 4 to 7.

Conceived and crafted by Ian in his East London atelier, the mural was assembled on-site in Paris out of hundreds of bits of cut-denim jeans and is the largest ever made artwork entirely of pre-worn denim, reaching 13 feet tall and 33 feet long.

By collaging the pieces of recycled 501 so well that to most, it looks like a blue-toned painting, the artist pays tribute to some of the communities and movements that have contributed to the legacy of the 501s, which have become a timeless fashion item. The striking composition features seven figures representing key cultural archetypes who made Levi’s iconic, from the cowboys of the 1880s to the punks and gay communities of the 1970s, along with bikers, rebels, and a representation of the workers via a ‘Rosie the Riveter’-type character.

Ian’s name has been linked to Levi’s for some time, and Levi Strauss & Co. historian Tracey Panek is a long-time admirer. “He’s such a talented artist with a gift for using denim,” she says. “And this project looks amazing. Ian’s interpretation of the 501 jeans recurring presence in counterculture and progressive movements is on point. I’m excited to see it myself.”

Ian Berry is well-known for his detailed interior and exterior scenes as well as his emotive portraits, many of them of key figures connected to denim. “At one point many of my portraits were simultaneously in Italy, with both Armani and Lapo Elkann having one, my Debbie Harry hanging at Luxottica, and the Ayrton Senna portrait showing in Turin at APLOG, Alessandro Del Piero’s museum. When I was growing up in the 90’s I really felt that denim, while seen as American, had truly been embraced and elevated by Italian fashion. I think the country has a great connection to the material,” Berry said.

Ian Berry’s portraits for LEVI’S Chile in 2022

The exhibition of the piece at Milan Design Week is part of Interni Fuorisalone 2023’s Design Re-Evolution Exhibition at the University of Milan’s historic Ca’ Granda central courtyard in Via Festa del Perdono, one of the city’s most symbolic buildings.