Frame and Sotheby’s team up in a stylised tribute to 1980s art-world chic

Frame, the California-based fashion brand known for its denim and minimalist sensibility, has entered into its first partnership with Sotheby’s, the 281-year-old auction house. The result is a 31-piece capsule collection that fuses preppy classics with the sartorial mood of 1980s Upper East Side, a decade when art and finance competed—and often collided—for cultural dominance.

The limited-edition range, which includes navy blazers, argyle knits, Oxford shirts and off-duty loungewear, is clearly pitched at the affluent collector with a penchant for nostalgia. It will be sold through Frame’s retail network, online, and in Sotheby’s flagship locations in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong. Prices range from 43 dollars to 1,298 dollars.

At first glance, the pairing of a fashion brand and an auction house might appear a stretch—less a convergence of luxury codes than a well-packaged marketing exercise. And yet, the collaboration is a reflection of a broader trend: cultural institutions lending their heritage to consumer brands in search of deeper storytelling. The risk, as always, is that the resulting product may feel more like a costume than an authentic narrative.

The collection positions itself as wearable heritage, yet the reference points—Wall Street polish meets SoHo loft ease—veer into familiar territory. One could argue it offers more aesthetic gesture than conceptual substance. Still, the execution is polished, and the garments themselves likely to appeal to Frame’s core clientele: well-heeled urbanites with a penchant for vintage codes reworked for modern wardrobes.

Behind Frame’s increasingly omnipresent brand positioning are its co-founders Jens Grede and Erik Torstensson, a duo who have built not only a fashion label but a media-savvy empire of sorts. Grede, in particular, has become something of a serial entrepreneur in the fashion-adjacent space—also involved with Good American, the body-inclusive denim line founded with Khloé Kardashian, and Skims, the shapewear giant launched by Kim Kardashian. The Gredes have shown a remarkable ability to integrate fashion, celebrity, and commerce with fluency, albeit sometimes with a whiff of overextension.

That ability to spin brands into culture—and culture into commerce—may explain why Sotheby’s, under increasing pressure to broaden its appeal beyond high-net-worth collectors, saw strategic value in aligning with Frame. It’s about making art and legacy feel wearable, even attainable.