Art at the Service of Fashion?

For the fashion historian, art is a source of knowledge. Portraits by Titian, Sofonisba Anguissola, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Ingres are pure marvels: they allow us to observe in detail the clothes worn. In the old days, fashion was used to display wealth, and art to immortalise the ephemeral. In a word, art was at the service of fashion! Is this still the case?

Louis XIV put art and fashion at the service of the state. Versailles became the showcase of French art de vivre, and France the centre of luxury production. At the head of the factories where foreign know-how was implanted, artists imagined new models. This was one of the keys to success: ten years after its creation, Alençon was already exporting its “Poinct de France”, the most expensive and most sought-after lace. Napoleon I, then Napoleon III, also made art and fashion an economic driving force. Under the Empire, the demand for clothing was such that new production methods were introduced: standardisation of products and division of labour, which gave rise to confection, the ancestor of our ready-to-wear clothes. As for haute couture, a French speciality, it emerged during the Second Empire. At that time the demand for luxury was infinitely greater than the supply, and neither the garment industry nor seamstresses could satisfy it. An Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, then imagined a new way of operating.

In 1857 Worth opened his house on Rue de la Paix. He purchased his fabrics wholesale from the silk manufacturers in Lyon and, using their archives, obtained exclusive fabrics. He developed a collection of prototypes that he presented on his customers’ dummies. A fashion show before its time, and a novelty that allowed you to choose a piece while having modifications made.These models, supposedly unique, were then swiftly made. By substituting his own creativity for that of his customers, the couturier took control of fashion. Twice a year, the couturier imposed his taste. And to crown such immodesty, Worth no longer considered himself a supplier, but an artist. He signed his creations with his own signature. The price was exorbitant, but what is dear is desirable. Worth was going to set a precedent.

PARADIGM SHIFT

At the turn of the 20th century, Jacques Doucet became wealthy through his profession of fashion designer. An art lover, he acquired 18th century works in 1896, which he sold in part in 1912 to finance a collection dedicated to his contemporaries. (1) In 1924 he was the first purchaser of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. His collaborations with Jean Dunand, Eileen Gray, Rose Adler and Pierre Legrain made him one of the instigators of the Art Deco style. Also a founder of libraries, (2) Doucet was an authentic patron of the arts, the first to come from the world of fashion. Paul Poiret was another.Trained at Worth and Doucet, this couturier opened his house in 1903. Although he was the first to do away with the corset, his success was also due to his exuberance, the sumptuous parties he threw, the diversification of his activities (licences, perfumes, decoration), as well as his artistic collaborations. With Raoul Dufy, Poiret regenerated the textile repertoire. But despite his success, he was eclipsed by Coco Chanel, and ended up ruined and forgotten. Coming from nowhere, presenting herself as a muse, Chanel simplified the fashion of the 1920s. She was the first accepted couturier, according to Maurice Sachs. (3) Introduced to the art world by Misia Sert, Chanel immediately surrounded herself with artists; she created stage costumes, but also financed her friends and their projects. Chanel came at a time when fashion was changing its status. It was time for the abolition of artistic hierarchies.The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, where, under the presidency of Jeanne Lanvin, fashion took the lion’s share of the limelight, is a good example. Speeches and praise for haute couture proliferated. They elevated it to the rank of art, praising its aesthetic merits and its typically French craftsmanship, whereas in reality this sector was in the process of taking on the dimension of a veritable industry. (4)

Moreover, clients and couturiers are highly publicised and very photogenic. Photography, notably with Man Ray, colonised the pages of magazines: society columns, artistic advertisements for couture and cosmetics, and soon fashion columns. Thanks to this new medium, the press increased its circulation and made an ever-larger part of the population aware of fashion. While haute couture flirted with art, fashion and beauty served by advertising continued to expand their empire. This polarisation became more pronounced during the 1930s: on the one hand, department stores with single prices for a working-class clientele affected by the crisis, and on the other, haute couture that was more sophisticated than ever, intended for a wealthy elite. The happy few who adored, for example, the humour of Elsa Schiaparelli. Working with her artist friends (Dalí, Vertès, Cocteau, etc.), Schiaparelli brought surrealism to couture. Derision and off-beatness became part of the vocabulary of fashion, and even today the self-proclaimed second degree of certain art-fashion collaborations sometimes makes us forget their mediocrity.

AT GREAT EXPENSE

In the 1960s art became more democratic. Yves Saint Laurent, who had given “power to women” by allowing them to appropriate the essentials of men’s wardrobe, also intended to bring art to the streets. In 1966 he transposed Mondrian’s works into three dimensions. There followed an endless series of “tributes” to art which, like his “imaginary journeys”, renewed the designer’s decorative repertoire—and those of many other fashion designers after him. But the relationship with art did not end there: success allowed

the Bergé-Saint Laurent couple to build up an exceptional collection of works of art, while the commercial empire revived the tradition of cultural and/or humanitarian patronage. Finally,Yves Saint Laurent was the first living designer to have an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1983, followed by many others around the world. Pierre Bergé said: “Fashion isn’t an art, but it takes artists to create it.” He wanted to make Saint Laurent an artist. But aren’t Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Hussein Chalayan, Iris van Herpen also artists? And the late Virgil Abloh? And Martin Margiela? And if fashion is made by artists, isn’t it by the same token an art?

These days, luxury is at the top of its game. The colossal profits it generates are reinvested in foundations. Managed by professionals, these foundations are mainly dedicated to art. What could be more noble and more fiscally advantageous? As for fashion, it has become synonymous with waste and, more than ever, it is seeking to reinvent itself. Once based on the ephemeral and the multiple, it now wants to be eco-responsible, sustainable and unique, and it is precisely on this point that art has a role to play. Art would bring to fashion a “supplement of soul”, the part of the dream and emotion it so badly needs to arouse the desire to buy. Art feeds the creativity of brands. Art gives marketing a touch of madness that renews the interest of followers through extraordinary catwalk sets, magnificent films, blockbuster exhibitions, capsule collections and even dematerialised collaborations. Because, yes, far from a world saturated with products, our avatars already dress themselves at great expense with virtual creations while buying NFTs (5)—and no need for a couturier for that! But whatever the fruits of these collaborations, it remains to be seen whether the artists gain as much as the brands.

Translation: Chloé Baker

1 Cézanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Matisse, Modigliani, Braque, Picabia, De Chirico, Masson, etc. The catalogue is being compiled on the Agorha database (INHA). 2 Doucet is the founder of the Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archéologie, now the INHA library, as well as the Bibliothèque Littéraire which bears his name. 3 “From the day we went to the homes of people we didn’t know, we found ourselves accepting invitations from major suppliers, but suppliers nonetheless; before the war, we didn’t even greet them [...]. It was Miss Chanel who was the first dressmaker to be accepted; apart from the fact that she was charming, and certainly brilliant in her part, the women of the world had the baseness to think that when they saw her they could dress for free” (Maurice Sachs, remarks written on June 28th, 1928, published in La Nouvelle Revue Critique in 1939, in Au Temps du Boeuf sur le Toit, Paris: Grasset, 1987, p. 110). 4 Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet will have up to 4000 employees. 5 The launch of graphic artist Chito’s NFT collection will take place at the same time as Givenchy’s Spring 2022 precollection. Proceeds from the sale of the Chito x Givenchy NFTs will be donated to Givenchy’s long-time partner The Ocean Cleanup.

A graduate of the École du Louvre and the École du Patrimoine, Catherine Örmen is an independent curator and author of books on the history of fashion. She teaches and contributes her expertise to the field of fashion heritage.

De gauche à droite from left:

Robe dress Paul Poiret. Modèle n°5179 model from the pattern d’après le motif Tulipes stylisées par by Raoul Dufy. 1920. Photographie anonyme anonymous photograph. (Archives de Paris, D12U10 301). Yves Saint Laurent. Veste jacket Hommage à Pablo Picasso. Automne-hiver 1979 autumn-winter. Drap de laine ivoire, bleu et noir ivory wool sheet, blue and black. (Fondation Pierre Bergé -Yves Saint Laurent, Paris ; © Yves Saint Laurent / Nicolas Mathéus)