Fashion meets art.  Handbag designer Katherine Fleming‘s $800 signature Jane clutch, available exclusively at Barney’s New York (and several other locations worldwide), was transformed into 17 unique pieces of artwork by 17 artists, all invited by Fleming herself.  Katherine Fleming was, until recently, Design Director of Accessories for Tory Burch but is now working exclusively on her own handbag line – and promoting it too.

Child’s Car. Original design of “Jane Clutch” by Katherine Fleming, transformed into “Child’s Car” by Jeff Miller.

The 17 artist designs debuted during Miami Art Basel at the handbag designer’s Pop-Up shop in Miami’s Design District, where they will remain on display until until December 24. Then, each of the one-off designs will be sold on ebay, with proceeds going to support the Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI) which provides space for emerging artists in Miami. Award winning industrial designer Jeff Miller was one of the 17 participating artists.  He described his design Child’s Car, a transformation of  Fleming’s Jane clutch clutch as follows:  “My idea was to remove the function from the handbag and fit it into something else. Letting the beautiful shapes and texture take center stage against the backdrop of a paradigm iconic form; in this case, a stylized car for a child.”  Since 2002, he’s had his own practice (www.jeffmillerdesigns.com) working in the areas of product, furniture and interior design, and he is also currently the creative director of newly launched Itoki Design.

The other participating artists are: Naomi Fisher, Jim Drain, Alejandro Cardenas, Jenna Gribbon, Megan Marrin, Robert Melee, Timothy Hull, Alexia Stamatiou, Tom Fruin, Kembra Pfahler, Gordon Hull, KOLKOZ, CONFETTISYSTEM, Scott Reeder, Luis Gispert, Constantin and Laurene Boym.  The Pop-Up shop is located in the Miami’s Design District’s renowned Moore Building and was designed by Shulman + Associates (S+A), a full service architecture, interior design and urban design firm based in Miami.