WHEREFORE ART?

ART HOUSE

[At right: Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) in his studio, image via www. artmuseums.harvard.edu]

Fashion and art have always been joined at the hip (get it?), but never more so than on the recent runways.

For more scholarly commentary on this topic, Couture Carrie directs her readers to Couture Culture by Nancy J. Troy, a delicious and exquisitely-

researched tome on the complex relationship between modern art and fashion.

Now, for the stunning visual parallels between the dress and the artist's canvas: this dress by Giles for Fall 2008 is particularly reminiscent of a Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) slashed canvas painting (Runway photo at upper left courtesy style.com; Fontana photo from timemagazine.com).

We cannot help being reminded of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss with Christian Dior’s orange floor-length coat. Fashion photo courtesy nymag.com/fashion.

Of course, there are also more self-conscious nods to the art world on the part of designers.

Since its inception in the 1960’s by Yves Saint Laurent (picture at left courtesy the Victoria and Albert Museum in London), the Mondrian dress has undergone various incarnations, including, most recently, Herve Legér’s Adeline square neck tank dress (at lower left, for purchase at The Intermix) and Diane Von Furstenberg’s shift in black, white, camel and royal, at right, available at Neiman Marcus.

The instantly recognizable geometric design has even

appeared on apparel as obscure and unlikely as knee socks This fanciful legwear, pictured at right, is currently on sale at anthropologie.com.

In sum, whether consciously intended or not, fashion designers cannot help but channel their visual art predecessors (and contemporaries!) when creating. Intertextuality has become intertextilality!