The Art Of Fashion

Art and Fashion have always added more depth and creativity to each other. The collaboration of artists and designers have always been an ethereal combination. The result of these two incredible fields has been the source of great innovation, provocation, and revolution.

The two faces of the same coin have opened a wide range of exploration, which has brought incredible and unexpected results to the world. Fashion has been a platform to express a certain personality through embellishment and attire. Whereas art is a layer of thoughts coming from the mind of artists, using different mediums such as color, canvas, brushes, and many more. 

Art has the capacity to define the artists who created it, just as nude makeup and loose jeans express the person through his or her fashion. These two threads of fashion and art were initially tied together strongly in the Renaissance period. The artists in this period were hugely influenced by fashion.

The bond between fashion and art continued to become stronger from the 16th century to the modern era. This age was the time where people were greatly engrossed in traveling and exploring which grew their interest in costumes of other nations as well as their own costumes. This gradually changed the perspective towards fashion, as costume books started getting printed and became a visual source for the people.

Many artists from Paris started associating with fashion. They started finding inspiration in clothes. And so the relation of art and fashion became profound every day. The roots of these two worlds are deeply connected to self expressionism. For centuries the cultures and boundaries have been influencing art and fashion.

Elsa Schiaparelli

1937, Just prior to the second world war, Elsa Schiaparelli, an incredible fashion aficionado, always elaborated her creativity of designing towards art. Some of her incredible art collections were hugely inspired by the Genius surreal artist Salvador Dali. He was the source of inspiration for all her designs and even collaborated with him.

This collaboration of art and fashion gave birth to many iconic collections such as the famous Lobster dress. A massive lobster on an ivory silk dress painted by Dali, which was a tribute to his painting, Dream - Man finds Lobster in Place of Phone, New York,1934.

Further, this partnership made Dali design Shoe Hat and was executed by Schiaparelli's Winter 1937-38 catalog. The bond which Schiaparelli and Dali shared was astonishing as both of their's mind worked in order to amaze others. 

Schiaparelli never let her creativity bounded by anything, her creations captured a sense of enchanting and mythical themes, influenced by incredible couture techniques. She was always in love with mystical spiritualism and optical illusion. 

The Tear's Dress, a part of Schiaparelli's Circus Collection from 1938. This dress was inspired by the painting, Three Young Surrealist Women Holding  In their Arms The Skins Of An Orchestra. 

Dali's collaboration with Schiaparelli went beyond clothing towards patterns making for fabrics and bottles of perfume, like Shocking Radiance body oils and the Baccarat crystal bottle, Le Roy Soleil in 1946. 

These two never stopped working together and created much iconic and incredible fusion of art and fashion for the world to see.

Pop Art

The Pop Art in 1950 after world war two, sparked from vivid art forms breaking the norms of stereotypical classical art and focused on the celebration of ordinary items like Campbell's soup cans and figureheads of popular culture. 

Pop Art was all about embracing the mundane experience of life, acknowledging the different aspects of mass culture, and creating a bond of familiarity to the new generation of Americans. Pop art wrapped its sensational and bold color combinations with the advertisements.

This form of art was described as being popular, expandable, transient, low cost, mass-produced, clever, sensual, fresh, gimmicky, big business, fascinating by the pioneer of pop art Richard Hamilton.

The great Andy Warhol, the first pop art icon who influenced the world of fashion. He opposed the culture of art contributing unintentionally and making a huge impact in fashion. Being a fashion illustrator and working for magazines, Any Warhol turned his art into fashion items.

This was the time when the exclusivity of high fashion only reserved for the elite took a turn towards contemporary designs, being accessible to everyone. Warhol started printing his art designs on paper dresses. These garments contained the essence of the lifestyle of the normal consumer.

Andy Warhol's evergreen prints always inspired designers like Gianni Versace and Christian Dior. They have used Warhol prints in many of their garments through the 1990s.

Designer Jeremy Scott for Moschino showcased his collection inspired by commercials like McDonald's and Frito- Lay paying a tribute to Pop Art. He was the source of inspiration for all her designs and even collaborated with him.

The sixties was the time of art- inspired paper dresses, became the garment that was loved insanely and to date continues to inspire many fashion designers. Due to Pop art's ability to speak universally, it has always been a referred art movement for the fashion industry, and it is continued to be a source of influence to many designers till now.

Alexander McQueen 

The renowned fashion artist Lee Alexander McQueen always expressed his art through fashion. Born in 1969, East End of London, left school at the age of 16 and worked for Savile Row and then for Gieves and Hawkes, from where he learned tailoring. He completed his master's in fashion design in 1992 at Central Saint  Martins College of Art and Design.

His design always drew inspiration from the world around especially art, film, and music. Every show of his had a different approach with a unique way of storytelling. All his work possessed a unique art, with a rebellious and unconventional nature.

He has always executed his designs with unique installations, concepts and with dramatic and artistic performance in his runway shows. His Avant- grade style always gathered appreciation and left a huge impact on others.

His most iconic performance as Kate moss's Holograms above and live spray painting on a runway below. McQueen always tried to break the boundaries through his artistic ideation. The captivating ambiance created by the smooth blend of fashion and art still makes the world recognize and appreciate the work of McQueen. 

After McQueen Sarah Burton paid tribute to him by displaying an intricately designed gown inspired by the gowns featured in John Callcott Horsley's Oil painting, critics on costume, Fashions change. The gown was awarded as the dress of the year in 2011 and Burton grabbed the position of Designer of the year at the British Fashion Awards in 2011.

McQueen's relation with art has always made him work beyond his limits and always thrilled the audience. His contribution to the fashion world is really immeasurable and his minute artistic vision, work, and craftsmen are still aspired by many designers to date.

The connection between art and fashion is making its way in a deeper form in this digital world. Every brand, in order to maintain the level of relevance, to its consumers is trying to bring fashion and art together.

The exceptional and unforgettable collaboration of fashion and art has left everyone awestruck, like Roy Halston and Andy Warhol, who made fashion accessible to the mass, Yves Saint Laurent inspired by artists like Matisse, Mondrian, Van Gogh, Picasso, and George Braque and collide fashion with art in many of his collection.

There are many more iconic collaboration still going on, in order to create some more extraordinary collections. Fashion and art have always tried to shape society through their ideologies and execution. This blend of the two worlds has established a very exceptional impact on the world and continues to do so.