For those who find fashion superficial, thing again. Designers wove so much modern and contemporary art into their spring 2012 collections that the list of inspirations started resembling an exhibition catalogue.

We’ve seen the relationship between fashion and contemporary art growing rapidly over the years. Many fashion designers not only find their inspiration in art, they’re also not shy to literally show the origin of their inspiration in the outcome of their designs. Painters, photographers, visual artists, illustrators, performers and creative artists are scouted by top luxury fashion brands to create new collections, to boost up their websites, to redesign the concept-stores, to make their catwalk look like a work of art or to contribute to publications.

For instance, within 3 years, the Prada Foundation is planning to build a museum area covering more than 17,000 square meters in Milan, through an investment of 25 million Euro.  This area will host new projects and works of art of the existing Prada collection, also related to cinema, design and architecture.  

Also the Dutch are not left out. Can you spot Van Gogh’s Starry Night flourish three-dimensionally at the Rodarte’s spring show. With a simple copyright agreement, works of genius like this can find a new adoration for the wavy brushstrokes and mesmerizing palette of the real-life version.

Though it will be several months before we can actually wear the digitally printed paintings, seen this fashion week, many of the original works are on display now in museums and galleries. True creativity can be expressed in many ways, which makes the combination fashion and art an almost obvious one.

Rodarte                                            

Chanel

Anna Katrantzou