The Love Affair between Art and Fashion Part 3
Throughout this series we have encountered so many brilliant pieces of art that have inspired artists to create equally iconic garments. It is quite clear that art and fashion, together, have blurred the lines of binaries that defined these two disciplines. The pieces that came out of such an affair are bonafide pieces of art in their own right with many of these pieces going on to become collector’s items. Here we have more examples, through the last decade, of how art and fashion have come together whether it is in the form of photograph, prints or sculpture.
1. Stella McCartney x Ed Ruscha: 2016
Ed Ruscha, recipient of the coveted Guggenheim Fellowship, is known for his print and film work. In 2016, along with exceptional designer Stella McCartney, they released a collaborative line which focused on McCartney’s commitment to further the cause of cruelty free fashion. The line was modelled by Amber Valetta, a vegetarian and environmental activist herself, and showcased her images with Ruscha’s signature wry phrases such as, ‘Veg Out’, ‘Meat Free’, ‘No LeatGucci Ghost x Guccihers Feathers or Fur’, superimposed over her editorial photographs.
2. Raf Simons x Robert Mapplethorpe 2016
Raf Simons had already garnered a reputation of collaborating closely with iconic designers via his much celebrated collaboration with the American artist Sterling Ruby. Therefore, it came as no surprise when he decided to unveil his latest collection in 2016 which was to be inspired by the legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The garments which were showcased at the Pitti Oumo fashion event in Florence, featured sharp recreations of many of the late photographer’s well-known works, also included plenty of lesser-known ones, even a lesser known portrait of the New York painter Alice Neel.
3. Alice + Olivia x Jean-Michel Basquiat 2017
Alice + Olivia’s Julia Bendet had a specific aesthetic in mind when she decided that she wanted to pay homage to Basquiat’s famous art. “I didn’t want to just slap his paintings on things,” Bendet said. “I wanted [the prints] to feel like real paintings and feel dimensional, and I wanted the clothes to have elements of him, too.” The result was absolutely spectacular floor-skimming, A-line silk skirts covered in his paintings that stole the show. And not just that, the colors and details were stunningly vivid. Bendet had embroidered over certain areas or added sequins over expanses of color for a 3-D effect.
4. Virgil Abloh x Marcel Duchamp: 2017
Virgil Abloh, who founded Off White in 2013, paid homage to the celebrated artist Marcel Duchamp in 2017 with a reference to Duchamp’s most famous work—Fountains. This sculpture was rejected by the art world when it was first unveiled but since then it has garned a formidable reputation for giving birth to a revolution in the art world. At the centre of this homage is a hoodie with the words ‘R. Mutt 1917’ printed on it. ‘R.Mutt 1917’ has been taken from Duchamp’s aforementioned sculpture which also featured the same insignia. On the back of the hoodie is an explanation and the words Off-White™ c/o R.MUTT. The garment was unvieled on Instagram.
5. Gucci Ghost x Gucci: 2019
Gucci Ghost is nom de plume adopted by Trevor Andrews, a street graffiti artist who went about town painting his own interpretation of the Gucci brand’s world and extensively instagrammed his creations. Alessandro Michele, who took over the reins of Gucci in 2015, was committed to the idea of making the brand appeal to millennials as well keep the line fresh. So he invited the graffiti artist to collaborate with him. Their collaboration resulted in some beautiful designs inspired by street art with t shirts scrawled with tags, bags with graffiti art and sneakers decorated with multi coloured stars. This line even left Beyonce in rapture and she wore a customised red fur coat with Andrew Trevor’s motifs on her Formation tour.
6. Uniqlo x KAWS: 2019
Earlier last year KAWS, a Brooklyn based street pop artist most popularly known for his signature creations featuring vinyl toys, collaborated with the Japanese fast fashion retailer, Uniqlo. The wide array of designs featured graphic t-shirts with KAWS’s drawing of a pink BFF Companion holding another small Companion. It also featured several tote bags and kids’ accessories featuring more sets of Companions, most notably, the dissected Companion and the blue Companion sitting on ledge. This line was so successful that it almost caused a stampede in a Uniqlo store in New York.
7. Daniel Arsham x Porsche: 2020
As we know, Daniel Arsham is a contemporary artist who works with manipulating architecture, sculpture and performance to redefine what we know of art. Most recently in 2020 he collaborated with Porsche on a sculpture called Ash & Pyrite Eroded Porsche. The sculpture is a life sized Porsche covered in ash, as if it has just been unearthed from an excavation site. The sculpture is an exquisite blend of manipulation of space and performance and while the focus is on decay, there are delicate crystals incrusted on the hood, doors and the rear of the vehicle.
