Marin Hopper—the daughter of the late photographer, filmmaker, artist, and actor Dennis Hopper and the actress, author, and model Brooke Hayward— was undeniably influenced by her parents. “Growing up amidst both of their convictions to make things, and make things happen, taught me to always stand by what you love, and never to compromise your creative vision,” she told us recently.
Today, she has Hayward House on 70th Street in New York with her mother, and the brands HAYWARD and HOPPER. Recently, the brands partnered with JetBlue to create luxury amenity bags, and at Bergdorf Goodman they came together for a popup installation featuring hand-selected items from both labels, photographs and vintage records from Dennis Hooper’s collection, and furniture and art pieces by an array of notable artists.
Photo by Ball and Albanese.
Whitewaller spoke with Marin Hopper to learn more about her rich family history, HAYWARD’s new collection, and more.
WHITEWALLER: Can you tell us a bit about HAYWARD and HOPPER?
Courtesy of Hayward House.
MARIN HOPPER: HAYWARD and HOPPER are American luxury fashion brands inspired by generations of Hollywood heritage. The brands embody a chic combination of East Coast sophistication and West Coast ease.
HAYWARD is a women’s accessories brand, named after my grandfather, the legendary Broadway and Hollywood impresario Leland Hayward, a progenitor of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and my mother, actress, author, and model Brooke Hayward.
Courtesy of Hayward House.
HOPPER is an accessories and menswear/unisex brand inspired by the life and spirit of my father, Dennis Hopper. He was a photographer, filmmaker, artist, and actor who used his camera to document a world “on fire with change.”
WW: What was the Spring/Summer 2018 collection inspired by?
MH: The SS18 collection is inspired by the design and essence of my childhood home in Los Angeles, 1712 North Crescent Heights. Like our home, the collection is bright and energetic. We created a digital print collage from my father’s black-and-white photography and used it to illustrate a number of key bags in the Spring collection.
WW: Can you tell us a bit about your recent installation at Bergdorf Goodman?
MH: The starting point for this install is 1712 North Crescent Heights, a book of my father’s photographs that I edited, published by Lisa Eisner’s Greybull Press. It focuses on all that went on in my childhood home. It was full of Hollywood actors, music legends, friends, and family.
The Bergdorf installation offers a curation of HAYWARD and HOPPER products, as well as furniture from designers like Frank Gehry, Samuel Marx, and John Vesey. There are also photographs by my father along with oil paintings and drawings by Claudia Munro Kerr and Mary Henry, vintage books from Arcana Books, Katerina Tana tabletop, and Anna Sheffield fine jewelry. We also set up a music bar in a special section, which features vintage records from Dennis’s collection, including a special recording of “Blue Suede Shoes” by Carl Perkins with his personal notes.
WW: You grew up with art surrounding you (with works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Ed Ruscha, etc.). What was special about it that you still cherish today?
MH: Always looking to the past in order to bring about a modern interpretation for the future. Bob Rauschenberg, together with my father’s photography, was a big inspiration for Spring 2018. David Hockney is a huge influence of Resort 2019.
WW: Is there anything in particular from that time, or that feeling of being surrounded by art and beautiful things, that you try and show? How do you communicate it?
MH: Follow your instincts. Make a bold statement. Don’t think twice about mixing up different periods of style, colors, fabrications, and extremes when making choices either for the decoration of a room or as inspiration for a new fashion collection.
