With the recent announcement of the Met Gala's dress code we reflect on the designers that found inspiration through the works of some of the greatest artists in history. The announcement was in my opinion a definitive statement that Fashion is Art leaving no room for doubt.
This ongoing dialogue between fashion and art is a subject I've spent time contemplating. It brings me back to my foundational years studying fashion in the UK. In 2015, while attending Vogue College, one of our assignments was centred on the question: "Is Fashion Art?" Below, is my personal reflection on that very debate for my assignment, outlining my firm belief that, indeed, fashion warrants a seat at the table of the fine arts.
Is Fashion Art?
The question of whether fashion qualifies as an art form is a longstanding and complex debate. However, when examining the history and evolution of design, particularly through the lens of influential figures like Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, the indelible link between fashion and the broader world of art becomes unmistakably clear.
Mademoiselle Chanel, throughout her illustrious lifetime, intentionally positioned herself at the epicenter of the avant-garde, surrounding herself with a constellation of groundbreaking artists. This inner circle included figures such as the Cubist master Pablo Picasso, the multi-talented French writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and the revolutionary Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. Today, these names—along with Chanel herself—are universally acknowledged as being among the greatest artists and designers of their respective eras. Cocteau was a literary and visual innovator, Stravinsky redefined classical music, and Picasso fundamentally altered the course of painting.
The artistic movements of the early 20th century were instrumental in shaping modern fashion. Picasso is most renowned for pioneering Cubism, an art form that introduced a modern, fragmented approach to pictorial representation. This artistic radicalism directly informed the aesthetics of the Art Deco movement. Art Deco, which reached its zenith in the 1920s and 1930s, drew heavily upon the structured lines of Cubism, the dynamic energy of Futurism, and the geometric precision of Constructivism. Furthermore, it incorporated stylistic cues from non-Western sources, notably African tribal art and the monumental scale of Egyptian architecture.
Chanel’s work serves as a powerful testament to the influence of art on fashion. Her iconic black flapper evening dress, for instance, perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the era. As William Banks-Blaney notes in 25 Dresses, "Chanel’s designs throughout the 1920’s have long been associated with the emergence of the flapper and the early Art Deco movement."
Chanel's design philosophy was fundamentally modern and rooted in a desire for liberation. She was reportedly "completely horrified" by the restrictive, corseted fashions that dominated the 1800s and early 1900s. Her response was a revolutionary design aesthetic prioritising ease of movement and combining elegance with comfort—a pairing that was unprecedented at the time.
Vogue magazine offered a detailed description of her seminal black flapper dress:
"...cut with deep U neckline and at back and a less deep one at front that is the favourite decolletage here this season. Its skirt has two or three layers of the crepe from the waist to about knee-line slit into half-inch wide fringes of irregular lengths that are weighted down by being covered with jet bugles. The effect is a very graceful dress."
Comparing this garment's design with the burgeoning Art Deco movement reveals striking similarities. Both the dress and the art of Picasso and his contemporaries were driven by a shared Modernist desire. They sought, as the critical consensus summarises, "to purify, to go straight to the essential and bring out lines and structures to better define content, meaning and emotion."
In simple terms, this translates to minimalism through subtraction. The guiding principle was not to add ornamentation but to remove the superfluous, leaving behind only the most essential, clean, and defining lines.
The history of fashion is replete with examples of designers drawing direct inspiration from artistic movements. In fact, the boundary between the two fields has often blurred, with several great artists also working as designers. For example, Salvador Dalí was not only an influential figure in Surrealist painting but also worked as a graphic artist and designer.
This symbiotic relationship continues to thrive today:
- Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) is famous for his Piet Mondrian-De Stijl inspired collection, translating the Dutch movement's geometric grids and primary colours into wearable art.
- The collaboration between designer Elsa Schiaparelli and Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí produced the now-infamous "Lobster Dress," a literal translation of Surrealist shock and whimsy into haute couture.
- Contemporary designers like Erdem have used the frenetic, abstract canvases of Jackson Pollock (Expressionist art movement) as a springboard for textile and silhouette design.
- The crossover extends into modern times, exemplified by the collaboration between the Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami and luxury house Louis Vuitton, which brought Superflat pop art aesthetics to accessories.
Ultimately, one can confidently assert that Art and Fashion are inextricably linked. Fashion is not merely about utility or commerce; it is a cultural barometer and a medium through which designers engage with the same themes, forms, and emotional concepts that motivate fine artists. Our future in design remains an unwritten canvas, but by looking to the past—by understanding what has been created and the art that inspired it—we find the context, the knowledge, and the inspiration needed to innovate and improve upon what has come before. The decision to define fashion as art, therefore, rests on the simple observation that it shares the desire to define content, meaning, and emotion through creative structure.
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