We He(Art) Fashion

We He(Art) Fashion

- Namrata Kedar

If the S/S 2018 runway was anything to go by, one was hard pressed to find a designer who did not reference art in one way or another. Some, like Dior, interpreted the style of an artist literally – Georgia O’Keefe and her trademark bandana worn under a wide-brimmed straw hat; Gucci collaborated with Instagram-found artists to create capsule collections; Calvin Klein cheered the pop art movement with Andy Warhol prints leading to an unprecedented four-year agreement with the Warhol foundation.

Fast forward to Miami Art Basel last month and the Dior announcement of the sale of their ‘Dior Lady Art 2’ – a project that saw 10 contemporary artists customise the house’s iconic Lady Dior Bag, including 24-year-old Jamilla Okuba.

The melding of art and fashion is barely a new phenomenon. From the days of Elsa Schiaparelli who joined forces with Salvador Dali to 30 years later when Yves Saint Laurent iconised Piet Mondrain via gridlocked shift dresses – the interbreeding between art and fashion has become status quo. The tradition has been made stronger than ever with brands like Louis Vuitton, that under the helm of Marc Jacobs saw famed collaborations with artists like Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. Art is in this brand’s DNA and staying true to it, LV dropped its new ‘Masters 2’ with Jeff Koons earlier this year. Koons revisited chapters of art history that featured the works of Claude Monet and Edouard Manet, and repainted their masterpieces, transposing them on classic LV bags such as the ‘Speedy’ and ‘Neverfull’. These paintings added a lustre of fine art to fashion. Fashion on the other hand has made art fashionable.