Damien Hirst Spends $160,000 On Fake Designer Duds

Damien Hirst Spends $160,000 On Fake Designer Duds

Artist Damien Hirst so considers punk clothing art that he paid $160,000 for a collection of it for his museum. Unfortunately, Sex Pistols founder Malcolm McLaren has declared it all fake, and he should know: He created the originals with designer Vivienne Westwood.

Hirst, most famous for his installations of sliced cows and tiger sharks floating in formaldehyde, bought garments he thought were from the couple's 1970s shop Sex & Seditionaries, from Simon Easton, owner of risque site Punkpistol.com. But when McLaren went to Hirst's house, he had bad news.

"I felt terrible, but they were fakes," McLaren told us. "Seeing these clothes, I said, 'Wow, they've gone to great lengths to manufacture the labels, and distress the fabrics.' But clearly they were not the fabrics we used 35 years ago, and the stitching was totally different. And there were bags and bags, big black bags of them. We simply didn't make that many. I mean, we literally made these clothes on my kitchen floor. They were each unique."

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