PITT, Suzan. Sex Slave.

(New York): Suzan Pitt, 1984. Original painted raincoat. Vintage Ayrostar Spectator cravenette raincoat, size not given but large to extra-large, hand-painted by Suzan Pitt with sex-related text and imagery. Pitt, a pioneering independent animator director of such shorts as “Asparagus,” “Joy Street,” and “El Doctor,” First painted coats in 1984 for The A More Store created by COLAB, an artist’s collaborative in New York. Later that year the coats were sold at Patricia Field’s 8th Street store. It was the year Downtown New York, became the catwalk for wearable art, the cool kids dancing the night away in Pitt’s painted raincoats, and Clayton Patterson hats. Pitt described raincoats as “one of a kind artworks you can wear or hang on the wall. I’m inspired by images from popular culture (comics, advertising, historical paintings, trash, lettering found everywhere, and images from my films and watercolors). I love to juxtapose multiple images to create a chain of association to the viewer.” Pitt created around 50 – 100 raincoats in the 80s before stopping to work on her film Joy Street. Pitt recommenced painting raincoats in 2015 and they appeared on the catwalk in a collaboration with House of Byfield. This is one of the original 1984 raincoats adorned with both text and imagery including Mickey Mouse and Goofy the coat is in good condition, with some old staining and with four small holes, the largest of which Pitt has incorporated to the design. The coat is signed and dated (1984) by Pitt in black paint. A remarkable artefact from the time when art and fashion met downtown.