When Art And Fashion Collide: Designers Bring Masterpieces To The Catwalk

By Ioana Zamfirescu

Perhaps its not surprising that clothing garments are nothing but designers’ blank canvases that patiently wait to be masterfully brought to life by the lively imagination of each creator. Over the last decades, fashion designers, such as Chanel, Rodarte and Delpozo have inserted elements that pay homage of the Impressionist-era of Claude Monet into their collections. 

Rodarte Spring-Summer 2015 – ‘Water lilies’ by Claude Monet

Chanel Haute Couture Spring 2016 – “A Pathway in Monet’s Garden, Giverny” by Claude Monet

Delpozo Spring 2015 – ‘Water lily pond’ by Claude Monet Drawn by the same need to create items and feelings of a timeless nature, designers and painters alike illustrate how fine the line between fashion and art actually is. What represents a variability of taste for the former stands as a trend-transcending work for the latter. Therefore, any attempt to diametrically separate these two is designed to ignite tensions between the desire for immortality and need for ephemerality. On a paradoxical level, timelessness, and fashion can coexist and, to a certain extent, have always done so.

The idea of timelessness is by definition a realm of constants, whereas fashion is mostly about transitions and meeting the needs of modern consumers. 

Apart from the impression-led times of the 19th century, the 1500s Renaissance has equally stained creative directors’ approach to fashion, such as Alessandro Michele and its references to Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights.’ This advertising campaign and collection can metaphorically be described as ‘fashion worth hanging on walls’ and be interpreted as a positive feature of the content-driven fashion world to provide young artists with equal opportunities for self-expression. 

Gucci Spring 2018 campaign

‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus BoschThe concept of wearable art has been taken to a further level by the Dutch duo, Viktor & Rolf, through their Fall-Winter 2015 collection. Inspired by ‘The Threatened Swan’ of Jan Assleijn, the designers implied they wanted to illustrate the action painting in a composed manner, rather than making it blatantly obvious for people to identify their interpretation of the masterpiece.

Whether art was made to be looked at or morphed into one’s wardrobe was questioned by many, but has been nonchalantly suggested by Viktor & Rolf that could be ‘both’. Designers’ obsession with old painting masters and the idea of sprinkling art in the context of fashion, as well as their relevance and popularity among young customers, can illustrate how intertwined the two fields are and how culture-thirsty the world has become, as a consequence of over-digitalization and consumption. 

Viktor & Rolf Autumn-Winter 2015 collection

‘The Threatened Swan’ by Jan Assleijn

Unarguably, fashion plays an intricate role in the context of permanence and perhaps what makes fashion timeless is its power to bring back to life long-forgotten styles in such a way that the ‘wheel’ feels constantly reinvented.

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