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An interesting but complex relationship is rooted in the encounter between art and fashion: two worlds so different yet so similar, that have always collaborated to expand their creative horizons.
From the very beginning, contemporary art and fashion have been reflected in each other: more and more designers have been inspired by art, and galleries and museums around the world have dedicated exhibitions to the big names of fashion.
The direct encounter of these two forms of expression brought to collaborations that created a new value for the brand and allowed artists to expand their audience. Among artists and couturiers, many have invested in the creative marriage between fashion and art.
From Marco Lodola x Dior to Jeff Koons x Louis Vuitton, from Kaws x Uniqlo to Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen, from Keith Haring x Fiorucci to Takashi Murakami x Off White. Below we explore the behind the scenes of some of our favorite collaborations, that we consider emblematic of a fruitful and symbiotic relationship.
Marco Lodola x Dior
After the collaboration with Mariella Senatore for the Cruise 2021 Collection, which enchanted fashion and art lovers with the wonderful lights from Salento, Maria Grazia Chiuri has recently launched the new Marco Lodola x Dior partnership, presented with the Fall 2021 Collection.
Born in 1955, the artist is one of the founders of New Futurism, which interprets the main features of the Futurist movement according to a contemporary taste. Through ingredients taken from comics, advertising and mass media, New Futurists’ research revolves around the concepts of modernity and progress.
In the windows of Dior flagship stores, contemporary art and fashion blossom in proximity. Marco Lodola illuminates the garments with his colorful works, ad-hoc designed for each of the 400 stores around the world. From Rome to Seoul, passing through Shanghai and Athens, the LED installations have been created for a harmonious encounter between Dior taste and the soul of the city that welcomes its shop.
Marco Lodola x Dior
Among the most spectacular results, the work on the facade of the Saks department store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Lodola's figures occupy the central windows and interior spaces of the store, matching the colors of the new collection of the designer Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Thanks to the collaboration with Lodola, Dior vocabulary becomes a mix of art, history and elegance, conceiving a universal language of beauty inspired by the artist's pop and fun taste.
Jeff Koons x Louis Vuitton
Discussed, criticized, yet highly successful in the market is the Jeff Koons Louis Vuitton collaboration dating back to 2017. The fashion house launched a collection inspired by the masterpieces of the biggest names in art history, recreated and signed by the American artist and printed on the most iconic bags, as well as on key chains and scarves.
The collection, entitled Masters, was presented in two chapters. The first revolves around the works of Da Vinci, Titian, Rubens and Van Gogh, while the second is inspired by Monet, Gauguin, Manet and Poussin, among others. Jeff Koons used LV accessories as a blank canvas, bringing their shapes and colors closer to the aesthetics of the Great Masters.
Art according to Koons is for everyone and can be worn and carried around the city. The strong - and, according to some, excessively outrageous - character of the Jeff Koons x Louis Vuitton collection has made it a true planetary success in media terms.
This is not the first time for the fashion house, which in the past has collaborated with Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami for the launch of limited edition leather goods.
Jeff Koons x Louis Vuitton
Kaws x Uniqlo
Introduced to the public in 2019 to celebrate the Japanese brand anniversary, Kaws x Uniqlo is a capsule collection that welcomes the artist iconic graphics and cartoon subjects on a coveted line of clothing.
Within hours of its release, Uniqlo x Kaws pulverized sales records. The journalists' cameras have framed hundreds of young people spending the night in front of the flagship store of the brand, in order to secure at any cost a piece of the collection, rushing into stores at opening time.
Inspired by a trip of Kaws in Japan, Companion is his most iconic character, as well as the protagonist of the capsule collection in collaboration with Uniqlo. It is the first of the artist "toys." Others include Accomplice, Chum, Bendy, BFF and Bearbrick, inspired by pre-existing characters in the world of Pop Art and mass culture.
The latest chapter in the Uniqlo x Kaws partnership was created to celebrate the "KAWS Tokyo First" exhibition, which can be visited in the Japanese capital between July 16 and October 11, 2021. The collection features several t-shirt designs, as well as accessories such as bags and mugs.
Kaws x Uniqlo
In his brilliant career, Kaws made collections with other fashion mainstays, including Dior, Comme des Garçons and Air Jordan. For the artist and his poetics, these are much more than just collaborations.
"I always thought the fine art world was hypocritical and snubbed products. I never considered just creating products or just paintings, I want to do all of that at the same time and see what happens."
Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen
Damien Hirst first, precious collaboration with a designer, Alexander McQueen, results in a limited edition and a stunning video, conceived by Norwegian director Sølve Sundsbø.
The collection, created in 2013 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the iconic skull scarf designed by McQueen, includes thirty scarves, which relaunch Hirst's Entomology series. In the patterns that color McQueen accessories made of silk, chiffon, twill and cashmere, we see butterflies, spiders and other insects compacting to form the iconic skull.
In the video introducing Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen collection, four females dance gracefully at slow speed. Their faces are completely covered by the scarves, which flutter adhering to the moving bodies like a second skin.
Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen
Keith Haring x Fiorucci
Elio Fiorucci, founder of the well-known brand Fiorucci, opened his first shop in 1967 in Galleria Passarella in Milan, near San Babila.
Thanks to its unmistakable experimental character and its pop charge, the legendary fashion brand was soon established on the international scene. Elio Fiorucci meets and befriends the most fashionable artists of the moment, including Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.
Between 1983 and 1984, it is Keith Haring himself who is responsible for the complete restyling of the Fiorucci store in Milan. Street art and fashion meet and give life to a legendary masterpiece.
The artist designed a real action painting intervention, decorating the interior of the store, equipped with his creativity and a spray can.
Keith Haring x Fiorucci
One of the wall panels painted by Keith Haring can be seen at Deodato Arte Gallery. Fiorucci Wall is an exclusive one-of-a-kind piece handmade by the artist with spray paint on a wooden panel.
Takashi Murakami x Off White
Dating back to 2018 is the Takashi Murakami x Off White collaboration. For the occasion, the artist and Virgil Abloh, founder of the fashion house that drives Millennials and Z Generation crazy, launched a capsule collection of bags titled Future History, inspired by the exhibition of the same name organized by the two at Gagosian Gallery in London.
The tote bags are available in four colors: pink, white, black and yellow. They are the perfect combination of the different yet complementary languages of two visionaries - true works of art that transcend their own individual practices.
Takashi Murakami x Off White
The pair first encounter was more than a decade ago, when Murakami designed the cover for a Kanye West album while Abloh worked as his creative director. Since then, their relationship has been destined to become increasingly synergistic.
Less recent is the collaboration that saw Virgil Abloh and Takashi Murakami hand-paint a series of one-of-a-kind T-shirts. In this four-handed story emerges the desire of the two to exist, to participate in the now and shape it, escaping from categorization and breaking down the barriers that, in the past, have presented art and fashion as two distant and structurally incompatible words.
