Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The artist Damien Hirst, who is in the process of selling a diamond-covered skull for $100 million, is branching out into fashion, with a new collection for Levi Strauss & Co.

The line Hirst co-designed for the company's spring 2008 ``Warhol Factory X Levi's X Damien Hirst'' collection includes jeans decorated with a skull pattern made of Swarovski crystals. Priced at $4,000 a pair, the jeans are the most expensive items in the collection.

Hirst's designs will get their runway debut on Sept. 8, at the Gagosian gallery in Chelsea, during New York's Fashion Week, Levi Strauss said. The occasion melds the worlds of art and fashion. Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide director of contemporary art, said he'll be there. So did fashion photographer Sante D'Orazio.

The collection, which includes some 40 styles for men and as many for women, is part of the Warhol Factory X Levi's label. It uses images from Warhol's artworks through a licensing agreement with the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Hirst contacted the label's creative director, Adrian Nyman, after seeing its second collection at Barneys New York last November, Nyman said. Hirst was traveling and couldn't be reached for comment, a Gagosian gallery representative said.

``There was a T-shirt using Warhol's electric chair and it really got him excited,'' Nyman said in a telephone interview. ``We don't sell the collection in Europe, and he wanted to get some more styles. He bought pretty much the whole collection.''

Their collaboration developed from there.

Shark, Skull

The 42-year-old Briton gained international renown as part of the Young British Artists wave in the 1990s. His pickled tiger shark, for which hedge-fund manager and art collector Steven A. Cohen paid $8 million, will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, starting in late September.

Hirst's platinum skull, studded with 8,601 diamonds, is being sold to an investment group for $100 million in a deal expected to close in three to four weeks. He is Britain's wealthiest artist, with a personal fortune valued at 130 million pounds ($262 million) by the Sunday Times of London.

``Damien signifies hip, intelligent, of the moment and well-known,'' veteran art consultant Thea Westreich said. ``He is an artist with real name recognition.''

Clothes in the ``Warhol Factory X Levi's X Damien Hirst'' collection will appear at high-end retailers such as Barneys and Fred Segal in Los Angeles.

$375 Bondage Jeans

Items will include a $100 T-shirt with overlapping images from Warhol's and Hirst's artworks; a $900 waxed-denim motorcycle jacket lined with the dotted fabric, after Hirst's dot paintings; and jeans based on a design by Hirst in which he cut up two vintage pairs of Levi's 501s, added extra zippers for a bondage look and reassembled them, Nyman said. This style will go for $375. A regular pair of 501 jeans is available for as little as $46 on the Levi's Web site.

``There is a certain type of artist who is not contained by customary boundaries of a studio practice,'' art adviser Mark Fletcher said in an e-mail. ``Hirst is certainly one of these.''

Others include Warhol, who founded Interview magazine; Takashi Murakami, who has designed a bag for Louis Vuitton in 2003; and Julian Schnabel, who has directed movies including ``Basquiat'' (1996) and ``Le Scaphandre et le Papillon'' (2007).

Placing the names of Warhol and Hirst in a single brand is only logical, said private dealer Alberto Mugrabi, whose family owns one of the world's largest private Warhol collections.

``Damien is Andy's continuation,'' he said. ``Damien's shark and skull are as easily recognizable as Andy's electric chair or Mao.''

So, will he buy the clothes by Hirst?

``I don't wear Levi's,'' Mugrabi said, ``but I will definitely buy a T-shirt.''

(Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter of this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 31, 2007 00:01 EDT