The Intersection of Fine Art and Fashion: How Art Museums Are Shaping the Runway

In many ways, art is inseparable from fashion. Clothing pieces are often works of art themselves, but high fashion brands have also historically collaborated with a wide range of visual artists when designing new collections. However, some high fashion brands have taken their inspiration from the arts to new heights, as Louis Vitton and Christian Dior both used some of the most iconic and ornate buildings in Europe to showcase their new designs. 

Art & Louis Vuitton’s Women’s Fall-Winter 2021 Fashion Show

Louis Vuitton debuted its Women’s Fall-Winter 2021 collection at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Louvre is the world’s largest art museum, home to famous works like the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. 

The museum has an immeasurable amount of history: built in 1190, the building used to be a medieval fortress before becoming the residence of kings like Louis XIV. In 1793, right after the 1789 French Revolution, the building became a museum.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the Louvre has closed twice and suffered a large decrease in visitation and revenue from ticket sales. According to an article by Claire Selvin for ARTnews, the museum suffered losses of about $110.3 million. This is one reason why Nicolas Ghesquière, the creative director for Louis Vuitton, decided to set the brand’s Women’s Fall-Winter 2021 Fashion Show in the museum. Louis Vuitton is one of the biggest donors to the Louvre, and Ghesquière thought that hosting a popular fashion event in this atypical setting could attract more visitors to the museum when it reopens.

“I wanted something impactful, something that conveys hope and joy for what’s coming next, and for people to have a good time watching,” Ghesquière said on a Zoom call with several media outlets after the show. And he did just that: Louis Vuitton’s Fall-Winter 2021 fashion show highlighted Ghesquière’s ability to reinvent the ancient past through Renaissance, modern and contemporary styles of art. 

Within the museum, the show took place specifically in the Michelangelo Gallery. Named after the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, the gallery features Italian sculptures from the 16th to the 19th century. When we think about the fashion of this era, we think about rigidity, as corsets and panniers under gowns were causing women discomfort. In this fashion show, Ghesquière subverted this early modern notion of beauty. He said in the Zoom call, “Comfort is not something we associate with beautiful fashion, but now my clothes are padded and soft as well as being highly decorative.” The rigidity of stone and marble pilasters as well as bronze sculptures beautifully contrasted the billowy pieces at the show.

Ghesquière also took inspiration from Italian artist Piero Fornasetti, as seen in Louis Vuitton’s Fall-Winter 2021 capsule bag collection. The bags sport Greco-Roman iconography, a staple feature of Fornasetti’s work. 

Contemporary art was also present at this fashion show. According to the Guardian, Ghesquière “wanted something that would bring a jolt of energy to an audience watching at home,” so the show’s soundtrack was set to the contemporary French electronic duo Daft Punk.

There is also an ecological benefit to this unusual setting for a runway show, as using the sculptures from the Louvre’s collection eliminated the need to produce new set pieces for the runway. According to Louis Vuitton’s official website, the company was able to reduce the material used by 70%, and what was used will be recycled into new sculptures.

Art & Christian Dior’s Fall 2021 Ready-To-Wear Show

Similarly, Christian Dior showed its Fall 2021 Ready-To-Wear collection in the Palace of Versailles. 

In 1631, Louis XIII decided to rebuild a small country royal residence into what we know as the Palace of Versailles. In 1833, after the 1830 Revolution, Louis XVI removed Versailles’s status as a royal residence and the palace became a museum featuring various mediums of art such as paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings.

The fashion show was held in a wing of the palace called the Hall of Mirrors. In this extravagant 17th-century Baroque room, crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling and the walls are covered in works of art. The show, titled “Disturbing Beauty,” aimed to explore the idea of being vanguard and escaping from limiting standards of art and fashion.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s creative director, came up with the idea and invited the Italian contemporary artist Silvia Giambrone to execute her artistic vision. Waxed mirrors with thorns were placed in front of the actual mirrors on the Hall’s walls, and the distorted reflections of the models were rendered invisible. The thorns coming out of the waxed mirrors contribute to this reflective impossibility, and critique the idea of female vanity — including the contemporary practice of taking selfies. 

When could we ever imagine that a model wearing an overcoat and baggy jeans would march where Marie Antoinette once lived? This unique runway for Dior’s collection highlighted the disruption of fashion styles through artistic creativity. At the end of the show, a model marveled at the horizon on Versailles’s steps and ran into the gloomy woods, implying the desire to achieve liberty and distance from beauty standards established by the elite.

Although both Versailles and the Louvre currently serve as museums, they were previously residences of French monarchs who embodied and supported limiting notions of beauty. Ultimately, this was part of the reason their use as fashion show venues proved to be so striking. While the ending of “Disturbing Beauty” critiques humans’ long-standing practice of marvelling at their reflections in mirrors, the Louis Vuitton show highlighted the power of traditional art in shaping beauty ideals across time. In other words, one show used art to challenge beauty standards, and the other used art to re-emphasize them. 

As high-end designers turn art museum galleries into runways, the connection between art and fashion is reinforced. Interestingly, when mixing these two areas of creativity, new meanings and messages are being created in addition to portraying the unprecedented ways in which fashion and fine art complement each other.