Art was the official theme for this year’s Met Gala, bringing back the age-old question of whether fashion is a form of artistic expression. Either way, over the decades, classic artworks have been reinvented and redefined into unforgettable textile creations, blending the designer’s creativity and the artist’s self-expression. Here are 5 iconic art-inspired looks from fashion history that have transcended time.
Schiaparelli + Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí and his surrealist art inspired many of Elsa Schiaparelli’s designs in the 1930s. Dalí was the leader of Surrealism, a movement that sought imaginative elements and representations of the subconscious. Meanwhile, Elsa Schiaparelli was making her mark as a Haute Couture designer, as she stood out among other designers with her idiosyncratic style and innovations to Couture Fashion. Their collaboration was born out of the desire to break patterns established by both art and fashion.
The Lobster Dress (1937) is the most iconic product of their partnership. The dress featured a large lobster painted by Dalí himself, which was often featured in his work, strategically positioned at the front of the dress, widening the contrast between the lobster’s meaning, which were eroticism and danger, and its provocative colors.
YSL + Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian was the pioneer of the Neoplasticist movement, which had as its main characteristic the reduction of graphic language, and visual stability and harmony. In his Autumn/Winter 1965 collection, Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by Mondrian’s pieces, focusing on geometric lines and simple cuts to design the show’s aesthetic. This collaboration changed the relation between art and fashion, transforming Mondrian’ s two-dimensional masterpiece into a three-dimensional dress without losing the impact of the original art piece.
Versace + Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol’s Pop Art may be the designer’s favorite muse for inspiration, and Gianni Versace was no exception. The designer was an admirer of Warhol’s and echoed his famous Marilyn Monroe portrait in a dress for the Spring/Summer 1991 collection. The dress was so iconic for its time that it is now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was recently worn by singer Sabrina Carpenter when she performed at this year’s Met Gala.
Vivienne Westwood + Wallace Collection
Vivienne Westwood always praised the Wallace Collection and everything it represents. As an admirer, many art works from the Wallace archive served as inspiration for almost every collection made by the Maison. Westwood reproduced an artwork into a piece of clothing for the first time ever, choosing the oil painting ‘Daphnis and Chloe’ by François Boucher.
Rococo art was primarily characterized by its lightness, elegance, soft colors and romantic scenes from the XVIII century. The Stature of Liberty corset became the brand’s biggest feature, and for the Portrait collection of Autumn/Winter 1990/91, the corset was a wearable French work of art.
Moschino + Pablo Picasso
Moschino’s creative director, Jeremy Scott, took inspiration from the art of Pablo Picasso, not only for the collection but for the whole aesthetic of the Spanish-themed show. The Spanish painter was responsible for Cubism, an early 1900s movement that aimed to abandon classic perspectives and to represent objects and people through fragmented geometric figures in bidimensional surfaces.
For the Spring 2020 collection, Scott wanted to show different periods of Picasso’s career and persona, recreating paintings into clothes, pieces inspired by moments Picasso’s life and even making the house’s logo look like the artist’s signature.
The article above was edited by Larissa Buzon.
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