Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:01

Damien Hirst has received some distressing news about a recent clothing purchase he made.The controversial artist spent £80,000 on punk-style clothing believing it to be the genuine vintage article from Sex + Seditionaries, the clothing shop set up by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in the 1970s.He was planning to put the items on exhibition in his museum but McLaren noticed that the garments - thought to be sold by Simon Easton at punkpistol.com - were faked copies of the original designs. McLaren told the New York Daily News: "I felt terrible, but they were fakes."Seeing these clothes, clearly they were not the fabrics we used 35 years ago, the stitching was totally different and there were bags and bags, big black bags of them. We simply didn't make that many."I mean, we literally made these clothes on my kitchen floor, they were each unique."The music entrepreneur was so moved by the situation that he decided to inform Hirst personally which prompted Hirst to reply via email saying, "It's a shocking story". Mr Easton is adamant, however that the clothes are authentic and said: "McLaren actually had very little input in the design."He has less knowledge about these clothes than the people who collect them."