Art X Fashion

This exhibition is a comprehensive exploration of the symbiotic relationship between the world of fashion and fine art. Featuring more than 140 objects, including garments, accessories, textiles, photographs, and original artworks drawn from MFIT's permanent collection, Art X Fashion challenges the traditional hierarchies of visual culture, presenting fashion and art each as parallel, potent expressions of social, intellectual, and creative forces. Curated by Dr. Elizabeth Way, curator of costume and accessories at MFIT, the exhibition reflects MFIT's mission to advance the understanding and appreciation of fashion's critical role in culture. 

The core of Art X Fashion lies in its profound engagement with the eternal question: "Is fashion art?" The exhibition explores the ways that fashion has always been a partner, not a follower, of fine art, highlighting typically overlooked integrations throughout history. This includes examples of how the two disciplines have worked together to create European styles, from the drama of  Rococo and Neoclassical grandeur to the unsettling world of Surrealism, to the shock of Pop Art and postmodernism. 

Among the responses to this famous question is that of art and fashion historian Dr. Christopher Richards (Brooklyn College), who suggests that if fashion has innovative forms, exquisite craftsmanship, and cultural impact, then it is art. The pillars of his argument are illustrated through garments by Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, and Iris van Herpen, demonstrating innovation, and Charles Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, and Elsa Schiaparelli, showcasing craftsmanship. The cultural impact of fashion is seen through the power and legacy of Christian Dior's New Look and examples of 1970s punk.

This exhibition will garner strong opinions and spark lively dialogue, but whether you decide that fashion is art or not, fashion's strong and mutual relationship with fine art is undeniable.

The exhibition additionally highlights how fashion is utilized as an expressive tool for artists, such as Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, and Sonia Delaunay, alongside designers like Scott Barrie and Hussein Chalayan who root their concepts deeply in their art education, while Fabrice Simon and Ralph Rucci are both painters as well as designers. Contemporary figures such as Cat Chow, Mary Ping, and Tavares Strachan exemplify the fluid, modern boundary that exemplifies how these worlds can merge. Artists have also used fashion as a tool for artistic identity, which is demonstrated in the exhibition through examinations of figures like the 19th-century artist-flâneur, strolling the streets of Paris, who is an essential character of the modern Euro-American cultural world. This character was embodied by artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Gustave Caillebotte, who recognized the power of fashion to blend in and observe, but also to express modernity on their canvases. By fashioning models in kimonos, Chinese ao jackets, and ancient Greek and medieval inspired costume — a break from popular 19th-century styles — these artists defined artistic and bohemian dress and made a lasting impact on the looks that came to be considered "artsy" in the 20th century.

Art X Fashion equally surveys the ways in which fashion has been inspired by fine art. Through examples from designers such as Gianni Versace and Franco Moschino, the exhibition spotlights ways that fashion has used odes to Pop Art classics as a means of commenting on consumer and celebrity culture. These replications of famous artworks on garments and accessories democratized these priceless masterpieces for a mass audience, lending value, recognition, and even humor to fashion pieces, but also adding cultural capital to the artworks. In some cases, such as with Grace Wales Bonner, the application of fine art to fashion extends the message of the original artist. 

The exhibition also considers how designers interpret the aesthetics and themes of fine art into their own creative processes, resulting in designs that transcend their inspiration and produce new ideas. For example, Yves Saint Laurent famously recreated the color blocks of Piet Mondrian, but the couturier masterfully applied the flat motif to the three-dimensional body. Eric Gaskins' lush beadwork creates an astounding trompe-l'oeil effect in homage to the brushwork of Franz Kline, and Christian Francis Roth intricately fits boldly colored, abstracted pattern pieces together, invoking Henri Matisse's fauvist palette and energy. These pieces illustrate the designer as a parallel artist who deeply engages with and reinterprets the fine art source material through their own skill and creativity.

Art X Fashion culminates by tracing the long history of collaborations between artists and fashion designers. Among the examples is Louis Vuitton, who may be most known for engaging artists, such as Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama, to create designs bridging luxury fashion and contemporary art. Another approach is that of Isabel and Ruben Toledo, who transformed the relationship between art and fashion into a decades-long romance and lifestyle, regularly collaborating on art, fashion, costume design, and more. Other examples of partnerships between designers and artists that have produced evocative results include Vivienne Tam and Zhang Hongtu's investigation of Chairman Mao Zedong's iconography and Thebe Magugu's partnership with Phathu Nembilwi that celebrates South African women and culture.

Art X Fashion demonstrates the sustained integration of fashion and art. Time and again we have seen fashion design operate as a considered visual articulation of social ideas and individual creativity, drawing from the same foundation as fine art. As a growing creative, cultural, and economic entity, fashion has increasingly engaged the attention of the fine art world, a relationship which will only continue to evolve and makes the eternal question "Is fashion art?" all the more important in this moment. "This exhibition will garner strong opinions and spark lively dialogue, but whether you decide that fashion is art or not, fashion's strong and mutual relationship with fine art is undeniable," said Way.