Fashion and Art

When I saw all kinds of fabulous and specific garments on the runway shows, I am always thinking where these designers get their inspirations in fashion. Sometimes, designers say they were inspired from their daily life, such as street styles. However, some designers were still inspired by historical artistic styles. Interestingly, we can find some great examples to show their similarity and creativity.

1. Alexander McQueen's feather dress from fall '08 and Elyse Hochstadt's feather chair:

This black leather chair was designed by Elyse Hochstadt back in 2007, and the actual name of the chair is Portrait of George 1. When I saw the runway show, I can clearly connect the dress with the chair because of the beautiful black leathers.

Alexander McQueen, fall, 2008. "Portrait of George 1" by Elyse Hochstadt's , 2007.

2. The decoration of massive gold chains by Riccardo Tisci's and a jewelry chandelier by Floto + warner:

Artists Floto + Warner used some baubles to remake the beautiful artworks, which were made from recycled and secondhand jewelry. Besides, Riccardo Tisci used black colors to design clothes, butdecorated his collection with golden jewels that seemed to draw inspiration from Floto + warner.

Riccardo Tisci, Fall, 2008

Riccardo Tisci, Fall, 2009

Floto + Warner, Second-Hand Chandeliers

3. BALENCIAGA and Gerhard Richter

In this collection, we can find the pants showed the similarity of abstact styles between colors and lines. Balenciaga seems to get inspiration from the abstract oil painting by Gerhard Richter.

Balenciaga, Spring 2010 RTW

Oil on canvas by Gerhard Richter, 1992

4. John Galliano and Origami

Japan is a very beautiful country where they have their specific art and culture, and Origami is a traditional Japanese folk art that uses paper folding. It started in the 17th century AD and was popularized in the mid-1900s. Many designers were inspired by Origami, such as John Galliano, Lisa Bigalke, and Andre Lima, etc. We can see the shoulder and bottom of this fabulous origami wedding dress, which looks like a idea from the paper crane.

Origami, Japan
John Galliano for Christian Dior

5. The strong impact of YSL which was inspired by Van Gogh and Georges Braque

Yves Saint Laurent must be a great example to talk about fashion and art. YSL get a lot of inspirations from many famous paintings, such as Irises by Vincent Van Gogh and Les Oiseaux by Georges Braque. We can see the patterns of clothes in the YSL runway shows are very similar to these fabulous paintings that shows very beaufiful sunflowers and lovely birds.

YSL

Vincent Van Gogh, "Irises", 1889

YSL. Georges Braque,"Les Oiseaux", 1953-1954

6. Jean Charles de Castelbajac and the graffiti art of Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist who can represent the New York City street culture of the 1980s through his graffiti artworks that there are many cute figures to show all kinds of actions and characteristic. We can easily find the same idea that Jean Charles de Castelbajac used in his collection.

Jean Charles Castelbajac, 2002-2003.

Keith Haring, Icon (Radiant Beauty), 1990

This mural on the Church of Sant’Antonio in Pisa entitled “Tuttomondo,” was his last public project in 1990.