Modify: Surrealist Streetwear

After April 24, the Los Angeles–based artist Sonik Mercury put his mark on the Coachella Arts & Music Festival when he painted his science fiction–style graffiti look on the AT&T Blue Room tent at the influential rock festival. By August, he will try his style with fashion when he debuts Modify, his first clothing line.

The dust and bright sun of Coachella seem a world away from Mercury’s horror/science-fiction look. The fashion line explores a similar phantasmagoric style to the 1982 film “Blade Runner” and the work of Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger. With Modify, Mercury plans to make clothes for the rock ’n’ roll kids of dystopian worlds.

For the debut Fall 2008 line, his graphics will be emblazoned on T-shirts, hoodies, leggings, scarves, accessories (such as watches) and even bathrobes. The 40-piece line includes simple T-shirts with graphics of pyramid designs. The “Vector” hoodie displays a sci-fi look with its multicolored foil. The line's other details include grommets and LCD bulbs sewn into the T-shirts and hoodies. There are graphics of safety pins on the line’s leggings for women. To increase the line’s enigmatic flair, Modify’s logo bears a graphic of a house cat with devil’s horns and an angel’s halo. Wholesale price points range from $20 to $90, said Mercury, who started the line with his business partner and fianceacute;e, Nanette Basin, a former partner of Los Angeles–based Bordeaux Model Management.

Mercury began his journey into fashion with the encouragement of retailer and designer Neely Shearer, co-owner of Los Angeles boutique Xin and designer of the fashion label Issho, which was named one of Gen Art’s “Fresh New Faces” in 2005. “His graphics are mesmerizing and cryptic,” she said.

Mercury exhibited at Xin’s gallery in 2006, 2007 and this year. But in 2006, Shearer suggested the artist turn to fashion. He started making one-of-a-kind pieces for her shop. “I sold it to such a cross section of people,” Shearer said. “One was a young woman who is a collector of street art. Another was a woman in her 70s who collects fine art. ”

For more information, call (323) 252-7108 or e-mail transmorphic@gmail.com. —Andrew Asch