Photo: WireImage
When last we checked in with Ally Hilfiger, daughter of Tommy and appealing teenage star of 2003’s Simple Life precursor Rich Girls, she was living a bohemian life between her Manhattan apartment and Berlin and working on a series of paintings featuring the number 8. “It’s a lucky number for me,” she explained. Tomorrow night, the fruits of her creative period will be on display at the Chelsea Art Museum, as part of a multimedia installation she collaborated on with her friend and painting partner Izzie Gold, otherwise known as Francesco Chivetta, a 26-year-old D.J. and multimedia artist who describes his work as “Warhol-esque Lichtenstein with a slight case of Basquiat.”
The other day we spoke to them about the show over the phone. Ally was sick. “I sound like a dead cow,” she said. “My throat is going to fall out of my ass.”
The actual paintings will not appear in the installation; the museum is only hosting them for one night and doesn’t want to take the work from their permanent collection down. So images will appear in a film instead, which Ally says complements the work, anyway. “Picture a really cool motif of flowers and sunshine, and then bam! There’s a piece of Ally Hilfiger art. Then bam! There’s a piece of Izzie Gold art,” she said. “It’s really representative of our generation right now,” she said of the medium. “Basically the new generation of creative people, you’re multitalented, and you use your talents and creativity in every aspect.”
Francesco chimed in: “You don’t have to be a painter or a fashion designer,” he said. “You can be both, and you can rob banks at the same time.”
“I like to have all my creative outlets exposed,” said Ally. “I produce films, I paint, I’ve helped my father design clothes since I was 11 years old.”
Speaking of, is her father supportive of her work? “Oh, yes,” Ally said. “We call him the Godfather. He helps us make everything stronger and better.”
“It’s like American Gangster, minus the heroin,” Francesco said. “He is like a true patron of the arts.”
But to this new generation of creative people, the old man’s ideas can sometimes seem old-fashioned. “Our parents’ generation, they were really all about really focusing on one thing,” Ally explained. “Our generation is into more of a multi-thing. It’s kind of like we’re our parents generation, but with ADD.”
Related: Ally Hilfiger Says She’s Not Rich, But She Is Brain Dead
