Murray Crane. Photo: Supplied The fashion designer is celebrating 25 years of the label Crane Brothers and to mark the occasion, the company is teaming up with The Arts Foundation Te Temu Toi to launch a Laureate Award for design. Gifted biennially, the $30,000 grant will acknowledge design as an art form.
The 10-year commitment will consider design across a range of disciplines including industrial, product, architectural, and interior design. It’ll also include sustainable innovation. Speaking to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau, Murray Crane says art has always been a part of his life.
For him, these are “his people”. He’s collaborated with artists on installations over the years and in his flagship High Street store in central Auckland, Crane has pieces by Gordon Walters and Billy Apple on display. “Art was always at the forefront of our lives, in our discussions.
My father’s siblings were all artistic.” Crane’s grandfather and great-grandfather were both commercial artists. It’s no surprise then that he pursued a creative career.
Despite growing up in a small rural farming town in Canterbury, Crane has always been drawn to suits from a young age. As a teenager he would wear suits he bought from op shops during mufti-days at Geraldine High School. "There was some burning desire inside me to buck against the trend.
I didn’t want to be like anyone else. "I wasn’t particularly good at all the things you needed to be good at going to a small district high sch.