Slip on those dancing shoes and put on your party hat because BIMBA Y LOLA is celebrating that sweetest of birthdays – its 16th. 

Since being founded in 2015, the spanish label has established itself as a brand with a reputation for irreverence, a flair for the idiosyncratic, and an eye for individuality with its trademark bold prints and playful colours. More than just a label, the brand has always positioned itself as a creative collective, a multidisciplinary group of people spreading art and culture through fashion, and over the last 16 years it’s maintained a close relationship with the art world, collaborating with emerging artists and taking part in art fairs around the globe.

So, when the time came to celebrate this milestone anniversary, it felt only natural to turn to the artist community to help commemorate the occasion. Like most 16 year olds, this birthday for BIMBA Y LOLA marks a moment to look both inwards and forwards, a time for the brand to share its values and show who it really is, as it fully grows into itself. To embody this idea of introspection with an eye to the future, Dazed commissioned 16 creatives from across the industry, from latex artists and plush toy makers to illustrators and make-up artists, to reimagine and reinterpret the essence of the brand.

The result is 16 original works inspired by a BIMBA Y LOLA signature element – think logos and its trademark LB bag – all as expressive, original, and varied as the next. Italian photographer and illustrator Valentina De Zanche, for example, presents a psychedelic imagining of the artist’s cartoon avatar tripping through a lucid dream filled with flowers and dancing elves all wearing the bag. Elsewhere, subversive plush toy maker DaddyBears creates a lustrous three-tiered, bejewelled cake complete with flaming candles and colourful flowers.

When it came to his design, digital artist Ryan Vautier took the opportunity to continue his exploration of the possibilities of using AI in his work – something which, he says, feels like a collaboration in and of itself, with the digital as his partner. For this project, he took the playfulness and experimental nature of BIMBA Y LOLA as the driving force of inspiration. “The use of GANs (generative adversarial network) on the logo completely distorts it out of recognition, playing with this point of when something becomes unrecognisable, and letting it influence the digital form whilst still retaining its core identity,” he says. 

“I also wanted to create this imagined terrain for the logo to inhabit. Working back and forth in this dialogue between myself and the digital we created a colourscape that was influenced by BIMBA Y LOLA’s colour palette and experimental vibe.”

For image maker Tom Goddard, on the other hand, his piece was all about the party. “I really wanted to portray and play upon the kitsch aesthetics which surround BIMBA Y LOLA,” he says. “My aims were for my image to be a true fun, playful, innovative fashion celebration, taking visual form of a ‘Sweet 16’ to truly celebrate the brand’s anniversary.”

See all 16 of the works in the gallery above and head to BIMBA Y LOLA to check out the rest of the anniversary celebrations here.

With thanks to the artists DaddyBears, Julia Salnikova, Valentina De Zanche, Louis Tuakli-Mason, Francois-Xavier Lefebvre, Tom Goddard, Courtney Richards, ATHLYN, Bérénice Golmann, Ryan Vautier, Giulia Munari, Camille Soulat, Isabel Bonner, Sebastien Millot, Alice Dodds, and DUM KERAMIK.