Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Top-Elite Faschions For Sale”?
Artist Statement
18 x 24? Screen print signed and numbered edition of 450. Limit 1 per person/household. Proceeds go to Rootstrikers, a campaign finance reform orginazition. Release Date: 6/21/2011
Summary
Top-Elite Faschions For Sale is a 2011 Shepard Fairey screen print, 18 x 24 inches, signed and numbered in a first edition of 450, with a limit of one per person or household. Published by Obey Giant and released June 21, 2011 at $55, the work continues Fairey's campaign-finance-reform sequence, with proceeds going to Rootstrikers, a campaign finance reform organization. The title's play on "fashions" and "fascism" frames elite political power as a commodity for sale, aligning the print with Fairey's recurring themes of consumerism, power, and institutional critique through his bold propaganda-styled graphic vocabulary.
Why It Matters
Top-Elite Faschions For Sale is a third installment in Fairey's tightly clustered 2011 campaign-finance prints, released a week after Corporate Violence For Sale and sharing its reform mission. The source explicitly names Rootstrikers, a campaign finance reform organization, as the beneficiary, grounding the print in a concrete activist partnership rather than vague protest. The title's wordplay collapses fashion and fascism, casting elite political influence as a luxury commodity for sale, a sharp encapsulation of Fairey's critique of money in politics. The one-per-household purchase limit signals demand-management around the release and reinforces its place as a focused, cause-driven drop. For collectors, the print completes a recognizable Rootstrikers-linked trio and deepens the corporate-and-political-critique thread in Fairey's early-2010s catalog. Its propaganda-inspired aesthetic borrows the authority of commercial advertising to indict the systems it mimics, a hallmark of Fairey's method. As a signed and numbered edition of 450 at an accessible original price, it carried a pointed reform message to a broad audience while supporting an organization working directly on the issue depicted.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors of Fairey's political and campaign-finance work, especially those assembling the Rootstrikers-linked reform sequence from 2011. It pairs naturally with Corporate Violence For Sale and Legislative Influence For Sale to form a focused money-in-politics set. The signed and numbered edition of 450 and the one-per-household release limit give it both accessibility and a sense of controlled distribution. At 18 x 24 inches it displays well in groupings of Fairey's propaganda-styled political graphics. Buyers who value cause provenance will appreciate the named donation to Rootstrikers, which ties the artwork directly to ongoing campaign-finance-reform efforts.
Historical Context
Top-Elite Faschions For Sale belongs to Fairey's 2010-2012 run of propaganda-styled political prints and specifically to a 2011 sub-sequence on campaign finance and corporate power. Released within a span of weeks alongside related titles, it reflects a period when money in politics drew intense public attention, and Fairey aligned his street-derived aesthetic with the campaign-finance-reform movement through his partnership with Rootstrikers. The print exemplifies his strategy of appropriating commercial and elite imagery to critique the power structures it represents. It sits comfortably within the institutional-critique strand of his catalog that parallels his music and street-art output of the same years.
FAQ
What organization did this print support?
Proceeds went to Rootstrikers, a campaign finance reform organization named in the release description. The print continues Fairey's 2011 sequence of works critiquing money in politics and directing support toward reform efforts.
What is the edition size?
Top-Elite Faschions For Sale is a signed and numbered first edition of 450 screen prints, published by Obey Giant and released June 21, 2011 at $55. The release carried a limit of one per person or household.
What does the title mean?
The title plays on "fashions" and "fascism," framing elite political power as a luxury commodity for sale. It aligns with the print's critique of corporate and elite influence in politics, part of Fairey's broader campaign-finance-reform message.
What size is the print?
The work measures 18 x 24 inches and is a screen print published by Obey Giant. It belongs to the cluster of 2011 reform-themed releases tied to the Rootstrikers organization.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.