At times there are explicit references in current fashion collections to specific art movements or artists. Yet there are other times when art and fashion do not directly influence each other, but you can maybe see a connection between materials, moods, or colours.
Let's take ceramic, a material that has recently been used as an inspiration in this or that post. We have seen this material reappearing in the delicate flowers blooming on the bodices of Sarah Burton's Spring/Summer 2015 collection for Alexander McQueen.
Inspired by Japan, cherry blossoms, and in particular by Burton's personal passion for antique kimonos and exquisite Japanese fabrics, the collection borrowed from the attire of geishas and samurai warriors, obviously reinvented in a typical McQueen way to allow traditions and history to mix and combine with sensual, erotic and disturbing moods pointing towards the horror in beauty/beauty in horror dichotomy.
Porcelain recently reappeared in Ai Weiwei's "Blossom" pieces on display in the hospital ward of Golden Gate National Recreation Area's Alcatraz Island. The Chinese artist installed these delicate porcelain bouquets in the sinks, toilets, and tubs inside the cells.
This traditional Chinese art was employed in a symbolic way to bring beauty and comfort to the imprisoned, while hinting at China's 1956 Hundred Flowers Campaign, a period of government tolerance for free expression that was followed by a severe crackdown.
At the moment ceramic also appears in another art installation, Paul Cummins' "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" (with setting by stage designer Tom Piper), at the Tower of London.
This evolving art installation will be completed on November 11 when the 888,246th poppy will be planted; each poppy represents a British or Colonial military fatality during the First World War.
In all these three cases the same material is used to make flowers, and in all these cases the flowers become symbols of inspirations, memories, histories or acts of beauty in landscapes of horror that entice a moment of personal reflection. Can you think about other correspondences between recent art installations and fashion collections?
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