15 Times Fashion Designers Got Inspired By Iconic Artworks
As artist Andy Warhol rightly said, “Fashion is more art than art is.” The two have had a long-standing love affair for aeons, with fashion designers many a time turning to iconic artwork for inspiration, fascinated by the transformative wonders of paints and colours.
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Fashion Designers Inspired By Artwork
From D&G and Hermès to YSL, Valentino and Versace, we bring you a few special designs by luxury houses that looked to famous artists for a spark of inspiration.
Hermès Meets Piet Mondrian
The French heritage house’s AW20 line was reminiscent of Piet Mondrian’s abstract grid style of paintings. The Dutch painter’s minimalist art served as the starting point for a retro and geometric collection. Even the set unveiling the looks comprised white vertical bars flecked with red, blue, green and yellow, a colour palette that evoked Mondrian’s popular works. Back in 1965, art lover Yves Saint Laurent, too, was most impressed by Mondrian. He created the AW Haute Couture collection that year with this influence, inspiring many in the years to come, including Prada’s FW11 collection, Supreme’s SS16 lookbook and Balmain’s SS15.
Schiaparelli Meets Salvador Dalí
This iconic duo is credited with creating the art-fashion collaboration. In fact, The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, even had an exhibit titled ‘Dalí & Schiaparelli, In Daring Fashion’. Way back in 1937, Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli sought inspiration from Salvador Dalí to create some of her best works, like the Lobster Dress, Tears Dress, Shoe Hat and Skeleton Dress.
Moschino Meets Pablo Picasso
For Moschino’s Spring-Summer 2020 collection, American fashion designer Jeremy Scott paid homage to Spanish genius Pablo Picasso, creating an edit inspired by his most famous works, transforming supermodels like Bella Hadid into living, breathing canvases. His collection drew from ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, ‘Le Marin’, ‘Guitar’ as well as ‘Femme au beret et a la robe quadrillee’.
Christian Louboutin Meets Georges de La Tour
For its Fall 2011 campaign, the shoe mogul teamed up with photographer Peter Lippmann for a series of images inspired by art history portraits from the Renaissance era. For instance, he replaced the flickering candle in Georges de La Tour’s ‘Magdalene with the Smoking Flame’ with a beautiful shoe and also adapted Francisco de Zurbarán’s ‘Santa Dorotea’ into a Louboutin version, in which the modern woman only has eyes for the shoes on her plate. The women documented in the series were clearly infatuated with their red-soled shoes.
GIVENCHY MEETS KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI
‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa’, Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai’s most famous work, was Alexander McQueen’s inspiration for a patterned, beaded cocktail dress for the house’s 1998 SS Haute Couture line. The white organza, masterfully covered in beaded fringes, was reminiscent of the great Japanese print, with blue waves against a tangerine- orange beaded sky.
Gucci Meets John Everett Millais
Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal recreated ‘Ophelia’ by Sir John Everett Millais from the Renaissance era for Gucci’s SS18 collection. Monreal produced digital paintings for the line, also illustrating a story from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, depicting Ophelia floating away in a stream before being drowned by the heavy weight of her dress.
Shivan & Narresh Meets Rajasthan’ s Fresco Murals
Masters of prints, Shivan & Narresh’s Fresconian series was a summery line of swimwear and resort wear that made a vibrant splash on the runway of Lakmé Fashion Week. The designers borrowed heavily from the painterly quality of the fresco murals they came across on the walls of havelis in Shekhawati, Rajasthan. Even the runway setup drew from a David Hockney painting, the light and set design resembling the bottom of a pool.
Dolce & Gabbana Meets Peter Paul Rubens
For its Fall 2012 women’s collection, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana invoked Peter Paul Rubens’s Baroque art from ‘The Portrait of Anne of Austria’. In this painting, Anne of Austria is wearing Spanish fashion, her black gown decorated with vertical strips of green embroidery and gold details. Artfully designed dresses and capes, made out of luxurious textiles like lace and brocade, stole the Dolce & Gabbana show.
STELLA MCCARTNEY MEETS GEORGE STUBBS
In 2017, the pioneer of sustainable fashion, Stella McCartney had English painter George Stubbs’ 1770 painting ‘Horse Frightened by a Lion’ printed on her gowns, shirts and trousers. The artwork featured in her ready-to-wear Autumn-Winter 2017 collection, in an attempt to add “legendary strength and power” to the line.
Valentino Meets Hieronymus Bosch
Valentino’s chief designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, inspired by the religious artworks from the Middle Ages, reinterpreted the biblical symbols in Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’through floating sheer gowns. Zandra Rhodes, with whom he partnered for the series, created romantic prints and embroidered patterns, with a subtle nod to the original artwork.
Dior Meets Chanakya
For the Christian Dior SS22 Haute Couture show at Paris Couture Week, the house turned to Chanakya Ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai for a stunning backdrop. The mammoth 340 sqm, hand-embroidered, floor-to-ceiling spread — an installation inspired by French artist Eva Jospin — created the mise- en-scène of the showcase, the result of 218,000 hours of hard labour by 20 skilled artisans of Chanakya. The wall hanging depicted the work of artist couple Madhvi and Manu Parekh.
Versace Meets Andy Warhol
Back in 1991, Gianni Versace’s spring edit featured outfits printed with American artist Andy Warhol’s brightly coloured, silk-screened portraits of Marilyn Monroe and other famous icons. Besides modern art, the designer’s other sources of inspiration for the collection included African tribal and ancient Greek art, reflected in his use of the Medusa head as the Versace logo. Versace also dipped into his Italian roots, seeking inspiration in religious works by Renaissance painter Botticelli and also evoking scenes from neoclassical and romantic art.
Louis Vuitton Meets Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh
The French luxury fashion house is no stranger to infusing art into its creations. In 2021, Louis Vuitton created a signature bag collection inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, for which LV partnered with Jeff Koons. The capsule, dubbed ‘Masters’, also featured Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Wheat Fields and Cypresses’ as well as Peter Paul Rubens’ ‘Tiger Hunt’. There’s more: after LV’s multicoloured Takashi Murakami monogram was made famous across bags and accessories in 2013, the artist began to feature the monogram in his paintings.
Marithé + François Girbaud Meets Leonardo Da Vinci
In 2005, the French designer duo travelled back in time to Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic ‘Last Supper’ to create their collection. Adding a modern twist to their campaign, Marithé + François Girbaud replaced the biblical characters with female models, but they retained John the Apostle, who was played by a man sitting on a woman’s lap, with his torso bare and jeans riding low.
Puma Meets Frida Kahlo
Who said a fitness and athleisure wardrobe can’t be flirty and feminine? In Puma’s latest drop, its Spring-Summer 2022 collection featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan, the sports brand draws inspiration from Frida Kahlo’s floral-garland crowns, featuring technical design and powerful graphics influenced by the iconic Mexican painter’s work.
This story has been adapted for the website from a story that was originally published in HELLO! India’s June 2022 issue. Get your hands on the latest issue right here!
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