Fine Art and Fashion

The influence of historical artistic styles is impossible to separate from fashion designs. In portraying this powerful influence on fashion, I have juxtaposed specific artworks from various art movements with designer collections chosen from the Spring 2010 season.

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism's focus on light and its effects conjured images that presented a variety of color combined with the usage of strokes to create texture. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Le Moulin de la Galette" (1876) expressed this interplay of color (albeit almost monochromatic in its foundation) and texture.

Karl Lagerfeld's collection for Chanel expresses the vibe of impressionism; romantic and almost ethereal yet bold in its representation of an overall image.

ART NOUVEAU

Charazterized by fluid curved lines art and exotic motifs, art nouveau works such as Aubrey Beardsley "Peacock Skirt" (1894) captured the essence of modern life.

These art nouveau characteristics are epitomized in Georgina Chapman's whimsical creations for Marchesa.

EXPRESSIONISM

Van Gogh's "Wheatfields" (1890) encapsulates Expressionist art in its abstraction of forms and brilliance of color palette.

Similarly, Thakoon's collection expresses such abstractions and color applications through exquisite drapery and eye-catching textiles.

CUBISM

The overlapping shapes and ambiguity of subject placement in Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" (1937) creates a composition that appears dispersed yet ironically, it can be analyzed as a collective whole.

Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein appears to interpret "Guernica's" abstractions through the deconstuction and reconstruction of garments to achieve a look that is unique to his Cubist-like aesthetic.

SURREALISM

The dreamscape world of Salvador Dali's "Geopoliticus Child" (1943) creatively portrays the unexpected.

The cosmical creations of Alexander McQueen's collection underlines grandeur features that are of a surreal nature.

POSTMODERNISM

Known for her interpretation of subjects in photographs and interest in the geography of politics, Marlene Dumas paints her personal view of a victim of the Algerian War of Independence in "Woman of Algiers" (2001). The stoic unnatural hues are contrasted by the artist's intent to bring attention to the humanistic energy of the dehumanized.

Gareth Pugh's conceptualization of a post-apocalyptic collection parallel the cerebral provocation of "Woman of Algiers". Structural and experimental in design, Pugh delivers the avante-garde to other-worldly heights.