Is fashion art? It’s a touchy subject for many, and a silly one for others. That’s because fashion, no matter how extravagant or avant-garde, is grounded in the utilitarian. It exists to be worn. Art, on the other hand, has no real physical function. Or does it? Can a person who systematically acquires fashion be called a collector, or that descriptor reserved for those whose most treasured pieces cannot hang in a closet?
The debate is, we say, impossible to win. What is less difficult to discern is that art and fashion continually feed off of each other? The worlds have long mingled, and often embraced, to bring about some of history’s most fantastic garments. In the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Surrealist friends like Salvador Dalí, with whom she designed her famous lobster dress and shoe hat.
The most iconic names in American fashion–from Diane von Furstenberg to Francisco Costa–select works by the artists who have most inspired them. Paul McCarthy, Louise Bourgeois, Kehinde Wiley, and others highlight this brilliant auction, presented in partnership with the CFDA.
