Calling all artists and art lovers, Pop-In@Nordstrom is here to fill your world with the artwork of emerging talent, including original pieces and limited-edition prints with our latest shop in partnership with Tappan Collective. Discover various collections all curated by mood, alongside artful home décor, books, art supplies and more all within this gallery like limited-time pop-in shop launching on August 26 in select Nordstrom stores and online at Nordstrom.com/pop.

“Supporting emerging talent has always been one of my biggest passions and I’m proud that Nordstrom has been able to serve as a platform for this over the years. We are so naturally aligned with Tappan Collective on the mission of helping emerging artists reach wider audiences.” says Olivia Kim, SVP of Creative Merchandising. “We are excited to bring this special curation to life through Pop- In@Nordstrom and give our customers the opportunity to discover and access beautiful and original works of art.”

Pop-In@Nordstrom x Tappan Collective will inspire the artist within all of us with prints curated with mood in mind for everyone from the avid art collector to the beginner, from the bold, wild and avant- garde art lover, to cosmopolitan photography. Get ready to be transported into different worlds with collections including Body & Line, Fade Out, On the Horizon, Road Trip, Blush & Bashful, and Disconap, that include unique colors, abstract works, figurative pieces, painterly photographs, mixed media, and original works that will unlock memories, emotion, and a sense of discovery.

“I love that art is so personal and that it allows people to connect to specific events or life achievements,” said founder and CEO of Tappan Collective, Chelsea Neman Nassib. “Whether it’s the first piece for your new office or a piece for a nursery, art can evoke emotions around where you were in your life when you found a piece, or inspire you for that next stage. I am so happy to partner with Nordstrom and provide this unique experience for customers to be able to shop Tappan Collective in person across the US and in Canada.”

In addition to Tappan Collective’s artwork, the shop will feature a gallery inspired gift shop filled with home décor from Dada Daily, Rose Greenburg, and Bodha, toys and books from Areaware and Chronicle Books, and DIY kits and art supplies from Faber-Castell, Wool and the Gang, Three by Three, Poketo and many more. Whether you’re an artist or an art lover, a budding finger painter, or someone who draws for fun, Pop-In@Nordstrom x Tappan has something that will excite the artisan in all of us.

Pop-In@Nordstrom x Tappan Collective features products from additional brands including:

• Areaware
• Bodha
• Chronicle Books
• Chunks
• Dada Daily
• Faber-Castell
• Katie Kimmel
• Le Puzz
• Moglea
• Outsider Supply
• Poketo
• Pottery with a Purpose
• Rex Design
• Rose Greenberg
• Three By Three
• Venessa Arizaga
• Wool and the Gang

ABOUT POP-IN@NORDSTROM

Launched in October 2013, Pop-In@Nordstrom is an ongoing series of themed pop-up shops that transition every four to six weeks to offer a new shopping experience and a batch of new, often exclusive merchandise. Pop-In takes two forms: a shop curated around a theme featuring brands across different product categories (fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home/garden, sports/outdoors, etc.), or a partnership with a single brand to bring “the world of” to customers.

Pop-In@Nordstrom was built on a monthly rotation to keep customers coming back to discover new brands, new merchandise and create a fun and compelling experience in stores and online. Each shop features a mix of hand-picked merchandise spanning the high/low price range, with price points often starting at $5.

Pop-In@Nordstrom was the first initiative from the Nordstrom Creative Projects team, under the direction of Olivia Kim (SVP of Creative Merchandising). In her role, Kim focuses on creating energy, excitement, and inspiration throughout the retailer’s national locations. Pop-In@Nordstrom partnerships have included: Aesop, Allbirds, Casper, Converse, Disney, Everlane, Gentle Monster, goop, Hanes, HAY, Levi’s, Liberty London’s Flowers of Liberty collection, Marimekko, Nike, Opening Ceremony, Poketo, rag & bone, Smiley, The Museum of Modern Art’s MoMA Design Store, The North Face, Topshop/Topman, the U.S. debut of Hong Kong fashion collective I.T., VANS, and Warby Parker.

ABOUT TAPPAN COLLECTIVE

Tappan Collective is a leading digital platform revolutionizing the art industry with a unique mission to connect leading emerging artists with new and seasoned collectors across the world.

Founded in 2012 by Chelsea Neman Nassib, Tappan Collective was born out of a fundamental need to help emerging contemporary artists to reach a wider audience and have since continued to nurture these creatives by guiding them to industry recognition as the artists of tomorrow. Tappan Collective’s mission to connect promising up-and-coming artists and their collectors has opened up possibilities for both sides alike to explore their sense of personal identity while creating new avenues of distribution.

Over the last decade, Tappan has established itself as a leading source for individual collectors and designers to find their next art investment and reinvented the approach to discovering and collecting contemporary art in the industry beyond the traditional art paradigm.

www.outsidersupply.com

Featured in
Pop-In@Nordstrom | Tappan Collective, In Select Flagship U.S. and Canada Stores and Online

www.nordstrom.com/pop

“Fluxus Skies” is a visualized interpretation of Yoko Ono’s Painting For The Skies (1961) from her very special artist book, Grapefruit, published in 1964. The conceptual book is filled with short poetics lists of instructions that describe how to make art pieces that the reader may or may not choose to follow. Yoko’s work was a part of the Fluxus Movement, whose core aim was to promote living art, emphasizing the process of art making as more important than the finished work. The most important underpinning of our brand is the concept of art in motion, with each garment being more than a canvas, but also a living sculpture, fully activated by the wearer, and intended to serve as a reminder of artistic ideas you can carry with you throughout your day.

www.outsidersupply.com

Published in
Transformative Power of Art Journal Online Edition
Spring 2022, Tribute to Yoko Ono, Volume 1 Issue 1
www.transformativepowerofartjournal.com/publications/volume1issue1

Alum McKenzie Thompson (MFA 2014) recently spoke with Newcity about her newest clothing brand, Outsider Supply. Inspired by the ongoing pandemic and how it has affected the art world, the brand is focused on creating apparel that keeps art accessible. “We could not go to the museums or to art parties or fairs. We could not travel like we’re used to, or get together and share. However, we could not bear to simply check out and sit on the sidelines,” Thompson shared. “A small group of artists came together virtually to originate a conceptual brand called Outsider Supply. Together, we make art-focused apparel for your everyday life.”

Both Waller and Thompson have always held a lifelong love of art. Waller painted as a child, studied art history at the University of Alabama, went on to work at the iconic Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts in Highlands, NC, and to become director of the Shuptrine Gallery. For McKenzie, who grew up painting and taking photos but now considers herself a multidisciplinary artist, the career path held a few more twists and turns. She began by studying journalism at Chapel Hill. After becoming disillusioned with the industry, she traveled overseas for a year, where she decided to be the artist she'd always wanted to be. She then studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, where she explored a wide range of disciplines and received her master’s. It was her love of sculpture and 3D pieces that led to her creating artistic clothing.

www.outsidersupply.com

Published in
School of the Art Institute of Chicago News, Online Edition
January 2022 Issue
www.saic.edu/news/mckenzie-thompson-outsider-supply-newcity

“So often, art finds itself in cached-away places, hanging on the walls of museums, galleries, artist studios and collectors’ homes, sometimes on display for a select visitor or audience where all the circumstances align for the viewer and the artwork to be right there in the same place at the same time,” says McKenzie Thompson. “Sometimes art might be tucked away in the vault, or living amongst the pages of coffee-table reads, textbooks, or otherwise hidden from plain sight. Whatever the case, art is not always the easiest to find, especially in a happenstance way. It often has to be sought out with a deliberate effort made.”

“There is nothing wrong with that,” she says. “In fact, there are many things great! All of these traditional milieus are important to the big picture of how art finds its home in society, how discussions arise within the apartment gallery, how expression is elicited from the artist’s mind and brought into the physical world, how fun is had at the art fairs.” And then the pandemic hit. “We could not go to museums or to art parties or fairs. We could not travel like we’re used to, or get together and share. However, we could not bear to simply check out and sit on the sidelines,” she says. “A small group of artists came together virtually to originate a conceptual brand called Outsider Supply. Together, we make art-focused apparel for your everyday life.”

Thompson, a MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a passion for art history, knows firsthand that artists approach the world with a natural inclination to do their own thing. “It’s their brave curiosity that has contributed so much, and it is our goal to help spread their ideas, while playfully contributing ideas of our own, in an accessible way, through art-infused clothes,” she says. Celebrating the fact that artists have always been outsiders, diverging from the established path to make a way of their own, the Outsider Supply apparel features the works and ideas of artists throughout history who changed the world through their point of view, with how they saw expression and meaning through their own eyes. Simply put: “The mission statement of Outsider Supply truly reflects our motive and ethos, and that is to ‘Keep The Art Alive’!”

Their debut collection is a nod to art-historical movements, as well as to Swedish avant-garde artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, whose paintings were considered among the first abstract works in Western art history, and includes “an element of spontaneous play, too, where, in our own right, we combined elements of celebrated works to create imaginary collaborations between Andy Warhol and John Baldessari, as well as a game of exquisite corpse played with works by Donald Judd and Joan Míro,” Thompson says. The collection features Japanese-inspired boxy cut tees made with mindfully farmed organic cotton, oversized crewnecks and “sculptural dad hats—with a West Coast vibe that is laid back and artful for effortless style.” All are made to order in the United States and have one unexpected thing in common: “The garments themselves act as a wearable form of art, implicating the wearer as part of the artwork in a conceptual way. One might also call it Relational Aesthetics—meaning the artwork is complete when human beings are present, becoming a part of the work, and activating the piece as they bring it to life,” says Thompson.

There has never been a solid boundary between fashion and art for her, but more of a gradient line. “I truly came into apparel making through a fine art way. First growing up painting and taking photos, then later at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago becoming multidisciplinary, making text art, then sculptures, experiential installations, and from there, garments felt like a natural progression, like a sculpture you could live in.”

Outsider Supply is inspired by the concept of art de vivre, or the art of life. It has been created to celebrate the world’s great body of art, have a positive and inspiring impact, spread notable artistic ideas, and become something that lasts much longer than us, as Thompson puts it. But this doesn’t mean that you have to be an artist or even remotely close to one to wear and appreciate it. Thompson thinks of their customers as “people who enjoy the exterior level of things—what something looks like or how it presents itself—with an appreciation for thoughtful materiality, and who also like to search and find things that carry a deeper meaning. They could love Complex Mag, be culture aficionados, or just people who like what they see, and when they wear our garment, feel good. And of course, we are there for the lovers of design, architecture, fine art, philosophy and people like us, i.e., real art nerds.”

As for Thompson’s personal favorite? “I really enjoy the entire collection, as each piece is its own story of creative play, but I must admit, I do just love wearing our ‘Keep The Art Alive New Wave Crewneck,’” she says. “Maybe it’s the angle of the type or the exclamation point, but whenever I wear it, I really feel good! I feel like I’m plastered with a banner that is chic and carries such a lively mood, full of enthusiasm and happiness that inspires a meaning! It’s like, come on everybody, it will be so fun! Let’s keep the art alive! Come on, let’s do it! Plus the garment is so thick and nice and super soft on the inside, I could really live in that thing most of the time.”

When asked about what’s coming up, Thompson becomes giddy: “Well, I would have to say that I am most excited about what we get to explore and to see what shape that takes. Right now we are designing a new collection about Bauhaus, and it has just been so inspiring. First of all, I love a good artist manifesto, and what they were doing was incredible—so experimental and preeminently influential to the rest of modern life. We also will expand into full silhouettes at the right time, and the other day I found myself drawing a suit and some very cool plaid pants. I mean, wouldn’t it be fun to make the whole entire outfit?”

www.outsidersupply.com

Published in
Newcity Design Magazine Chicago, Print and Online Editions
January 2022 Issue
www.design.newcity.com/2022/01/12/fashion-as-sculpture-outsider-supply-creates-wearable-art/

When Allison Waller and McKenzie Thompson met as little girls, who could have foreseen that decades later they would be partnering up for the creative adventure of their lives. Both artists and lovers of art in their own right, the dynamic duo came together in the turmoil of 2020 and seized the moment. The result was Outsider Supply, an online apparel company dedicated to keeping art alive. Quintessentially of the times, Outsider Supply blends the best of many worlds into a successful, hip, conceptual virtual company that will not be bound by traditional ways of operating.

Both Waller and Thompson have always held a lifelong love of art. Waller painted as a child, studied art history at the University of Alabama, went on to work at the iconic Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts in Highlands, NC, and to become director of the Shuptrine Gallery. For McKenzie, who grew up painting and taking photos but now considers herself a multidisciplinary artist, the career path held a few more twists and turns. She began by studying journalism at Chapel Hill. After becoming disillusioned with the industry, she traveled overseas for a year, where she decided to be the artist she'd always wanted to be. She then studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, where she explored a wide range of disciplines and received her master’s. It was her love of sculpture and 3D pieces that led to her creating artistic clothing.

"I wanted to get back to something I was passionate about and felt free to express myself with," explains McKenzie, who ran her own store in Chicago, making original pieces and sourcing other designers' lines. In 2017 this transitioned into an e-commerce business, and McKenzie brought Allison Waller, her sister Sayward Thompson and their Canadian-based counterpart, Eric Mahoney, on board. Following this, 2020 came along and seemed like the perfect moment to reinvent the business. Ever innovative, the team, united by their love of art, manifested Outsider Supply, bringing historical artists into the modern world. What better way to exhibit work they admired than to see it displayed on comfortable clothing, allowing the garments to become wearable pieces of art?

Outsider Supply offers clothes for both men and women and has a line of hats that simply state the name of various historical art genres. Choose between "Fine Art," "Pop Art," "Romanticism," or "Futurism" and style the kind of art you love. "It's meant to be playful, but it can also be taken to a deeper level if you want," shares McKenzie, who has a clear dedication to liberating art from the confines of a gallery.

Both of these pioneering women talk with passion about the history of art and painters from other periods. One of their most beloved icons is female artist Hilma af Klint, a Swedish artist/mystic whose work is often heralded as being the first abstract representation in the Western world. Hilma af Klint assumed that there was a spiritual dimension to life and created images beyond what the eye could see. She was a groundbreaking female role model for her time. "She never repeated a brushstroke," says Waller in awe, as she explains how they choose which images and artists to highlight.

"We also play with the idea of taking some of our favorite artists and imagining what they would do if they collaborated with each other," smiles Waller. For example, they took the famous polaroid pieces of Andy Warhol and combined them with the Los Angeles contemporary artist, John Baldessari, who was an innovative force in conceptual art. Baldessari's work is recognizable by his use of blocking faces with a circle. "We basically Baldessaried Warhol's pictures! There's a lot of art humor going on here, but we also want to keep our clothes and images accessible to everyone, regardless of their knowledge of art history. These imaginary collaborations highlight our playful nature," explains McKenzie.

Straddling the beauty of Highlands in western North Carolina and the buzz of LA in California, both designers love the East coast but enjoy the eclectic West coast vibe too. Like many of their generation, the Outsider Supply duo are not limited by geography or traditional ways of thinking. Their combining of older art pieces with contemporary methods of representation reflects the out-of-the-box thinking that is able to build this online brand of clothing. Aiming to expand the collection, host some pop-up events and establish an international presence in the near future, Outsider Supply is ready to break the glass ceiling on the ‘starving artist' stereotype and reach their fullest potential.

www.outsidersupply.com

Published in
Plateau Magazine, Print and Online Editions
December/January 2022 Issue
www.theplateaumag.com/out-of-the-museum