Is Fashion Artistic, or is Art Fashionable?
Is Fashion Artistic, or is Art Fashionable?
By: Tessa Dunlop
The definition of art is subjective. Art is described as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination … producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power” (Oxford Languages). Through this criteria, fashion can be defined as art. Both fashion and art conduct an emotional power like none other. “Fashion is more art than art is,” says the world renowned artist, Andy Warhol. While fashion and art are controversially recognized among separate categories, they can be tied into one knot in connection with creative expression, social change, and reputation.
Creative expression is something that is important for painting, sculpture, and fashion alike. Artistic visions can manifest into an endless variety of forms, and can be both intended, and perceived. At the start of creativity, in both matters of fashion and art, pulling from inspiration is vital. Whether it's from the world within them or the world around them, artists and designers alike push their expressions through and about their initial inspirations. Using imagination, the spirit of a concept flows, like water, through the creative ocean. Freedom is a basis on which creative expression lives and breathes. If there is no artistic freedom, there is no art. Through both fashion and art, freedom can be communicated. Take Pablo Picasso’s “Large Nude in a Red Armchair,” and Alexander McQueen’s dress titled “The Horn of Plenty.” It is arguable that these two pieces can make you feel the same volume of expression - within the same emotion - even with no historical context. The mood of these two works are very similar. Whether you’re looking at Picasso’s painting, or McQueen’s garment, you can feel confusion, melancholy, eeriness, darkness, and rebellion. Perceiving is the art of seeing, and seeing is the art of feeling. Similar expressions can be perceived through both of these pieces, which proves that art and fashion can express the same emotions, and expression is influential. Both of these artists were also rebels of their time. Pablo Picasso was the head rebel of the Modern Art movement, straying away from the natural and predictable expressions of those before him. Alexander McQueen was the head rebel of the Modern Fashion movement, where fashion did not equal the beauty of the normal. To create a sense of rebellion is the most powerful expression that you can intend through art, or fashion, and both of these works were separately but similarly able to spark change.
Art and fashion are also interchangeable in terms of their individual abilities to commence social change. Change is inevitable when it comes to human advancement. If we were to compare what humanity was like at its earliest stages, to what it is now, our societies would be almost unrecognizable. Many factors drive social change, such as technology, culture, economy, and education. Two inexcusable components in driving social change though, are art and fashion. To better understand this societal similarity between fashion and art, we can take a look at a specific point in time of history where the world changed dramatically. The Renaissance was a time period following the Middle Ages, where a complete “rebirth” in European cultural, artistic, political and economic ways of life emerged. The Renaissance is most famously known for its artworks, but we can see similarities in the fashion of this time as well. Similar characteristics of both Renaissance fashion and art styles include naturalism, dimension, attention to detail, decor, and beauty. If we took away all Renaissance art, we would be able to see the social change throughout the clothing styles, and visa versa. There is a term that is very popular in fashion vocabulary, called a trend. A fashion trend requires specific context such as time, place, and purpose. Art movements, such as the Renaissance, Pop-Art, or Surrealism, also require specific context such as time, place, and purpose. So, if a fashion trend follows the same criteria as an art movement, aren’t they synonymous? The word for this phenomenon is not as important as the principle. Both fashion and art move us, as a society, through time and change.
People pay millions of dollars for original Da Vinci paintings, just like they pay millions of dollars for vintage Chanel bags. But why? We are all familiar with the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Pablo Picasso. At the same time, the names of Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and Christian Dior hold the same weight. Credibility and reputation are high values of both the art and fashion worlds. High class artists and designers must both hold the high expectations of their customers . Their works go for a million bucks, because their clientele feels like they’re worth a million bucks when they own an original piece. The dollar value is the most important value in the world. There is nothing on earth that people pay more for than a luxury good. Fine art and high fashion both fall under this luxury umbrella. Throughout history, fashion has always been society’s most useful tool for showing off wealth and status, even more so than art, from the earliest of times. Even now, people use clothing and accessories to showcase their status, because designer goods and luxurious clothing are easily recognizable. The best way to make a good first impression is through outfit choices. Each individual creates not only their own reputation, but their own identity through the types of luxury goods that they possess. There are certain stigmas, and certain types of buyers associated with different types of artworks, like a Van Gogh client versus a Warhol buyer, or a Chanel customer versus a Balenciaga fanatic. Reputation means everything to fashion and art, designers and artists, and consumers and collectors.
Despite all of these striking similarities between fashion and art: creative expression, social change, and reputation, fashion designs are often discredited by the outside world of their status and splendor. Most of the general public would argue that art and fashion are incomparable in terms of grandeur. There are several fashion designers themselves who don’t wish to credit fashion as art. Based on an interview with the Telegraph, top fashion house designer Karl Lagerfeld has his own opinions on the subject, “Art is art. Fashion is fashion. However, Andy Warhol proved that they can exist together … I am against museums and exhibitions in fashion. One woman said to me- ‘In my world, the world of art’- so I said: ‘Oh, don’t you make dresses anymore?’ A thin smile and then: ‘If you call yourself an artist, then you are second-rate’” (Modevation). I would smugly disagree with the naysayers to fashion as an art. The basis of art itself, the seven artistic elements- line, composition, color, space, texture, value, and form- can be simultaneously applied to high fashion pieces. Both fashion and art can be viewed in museum galleries. Fashion is art, and art is fashion. The two are interchangeable, interlocked, and unwavering. Thus, a natural and harmonious balance of fantasy.
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