6 Fashion Designers that drew Inspiration from famous Artworks
Fashion and art have always been interconnected, blending the artist’s cultural expression with creative vision. Fashion designers are fascinated by color, shape and form and how they are used to create such masterpieces. They often find themselves drawn to museums, and art galleries, and spend hours looking for paintings for sale and drawing inspiration from the best artists in the world.
Throughout decades, famous designers have sought inspiration from renowned artworks, transforming conceptual and aesthetic elements into textile masterpieces. Let’s explore the top fashion designers who made famous art pieces come to life on the runway.
Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent was an art lover, and many of his designs were inspired by art history. For instance, the fur jacket in Yves Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 1971 collection, was inspired by a mixed-media painting created by Martial Raysse. The creation plays with the concept of beauty while simultaneously mocking it, as some of the woman’s features are erased, and there’s a plastic toy flying above her head.
Christian Dior
Claude Monet’s impressionist paintings, featuring pastel colors, and natural elements, inspired Christian Dior‘s gown from the Spring/Summer 1949 collection. He attributed the design of the dress to Monet’s The Path Through the Irises and embroidered it with flower petals in different hues of purple and pink, which is a clear representation of Dior’s ideology.
Alexander McQueen
The gold-encrusted art by Gustav Klimt – the master of the symbolism movement- inspired many couturiers, including Alexander McQueen. For instance, in his Spring/Summer 2013 runway show, he included Klimt’s abstract patterns that adorn the muse in Portrait of Adele Boch-Bauer.
Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood https://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/designers/vivienne-westwood/ is renowned for raiding and reinventing the closets worn in the past, and she drew inspiration for one of her famous couture from Francois Boucher’s 1758 paintings, Portrait of Madame de Pompadour. The fashion designer completely transformed the vibe and look of Madame de Pompadour’s opalescent silk dress in the painting, by focusing on trademark asymmetry.
Valentino
At the Valentino Spring/Summer 2017 fashion show, Pierpaolo Piccioli – creative director drew inspiration from Heironymus Bosch and his famous painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Valentino collaborated with punk designer Zandra Rhodes, creating a collection of diaphanous shirts, skirts, and dresses in shades like blush pink and robin egg blue, giving an exciting nod to the medieval masterpiece.
Louis Vuitton
Art lovers rejoiced when Louis Vuitton collaborated with Jeff Koons. The latter drew inspiration from his Gazing Ball series, offering the audience a new perspective on art, and the collection included the work of some of the most renowned artists in history, including Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci, celebrating art, humanity, life, and beauty.
The bottom line
The connection between art and fashion is more fluid and dynamic than ever. Collaborations between artists and fashion designers are common, resulting in innovative collections that redefine the boundaries of fashion and art. Looking forward, it will be exciting to see what new forms of creativity these collaborations will inspire.
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