When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion

What better platform could there be for an artistic enterprise like fashion than art itself? Runways were a blank canvas just dying to be transformed for our viewing pleasure when designers began taking their presentations to the next level with ceiling-scraping art installations and runways transformed by seasoned artists. Whether recreating a famous artwork, leasing a historic landmark for a runway or starting from scratch with a team of artists and an unlimited budget, creative directors of design houses are setting the scene with as much energy and focus as their collections. Click through to see some of high fashion’s most daring runway masterpieces.

When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion

When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #1

For Fendi's Roma 90 Years Anniversary fashion show, art set the ultimate stage as models walked on water at the iconic Trevi Fountain in Rome. A curving plexiglass runway was built across the fountain giving the appearance of models floating across the famous 254-year-old sculpture.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #2

Raf Simons created his own version of a Claude Monet garden painting for his Christian Dior set design during Paris Fashion Week Spring 2014 at the Musée Rodin. All plants were artificially created by fine, dyed silk creating an exciting eco-friendly jungle evoking Monet's impressionistic artworks.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #3

Marc Jacobs collaborated with artist Daniel Buren for the ultimate mod-inspired multiescalator installation leading out onto a giant yellow and white checkered runway for his Louis Vuitton Spring 2013 fashion show. The art installation was hosted in an unparalleled art setting: the center courtyard of the Louvre. Oh là là!

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #4

Marc Jacobs' Fall 2013 fashion was shown twice. First under a giant sun by artist Olafur Eliasson, emitting low-frequency light causing the collection to appear in shades of gray. The second time with the house lights on, allowing the collection's true colors to be revealed. What was the point behind the double take? "I've felt out of sorts, and I wanted to see things sort of dismal and then still show the optimistic side," said Jacobs.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #5

In honor of Coco Chanel's bold and daring astrological sign, Leo, Karl Lagerfeld had a 12-meter behemoth-sized statue of a lion created for his Chanel Fall 2010 Haute Couture show. The massive animal took 30 sculptors three months to create and was a spectacular setting, perfect for models clad in haute couture Chanel to traipse around.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #6

Karl Lagerfeld showcased Mother Nature as the artist behind the set design at his Chanel Fall 2012 ready-to-wear show during Paris Fashion Week. Models walked through a maze of giant purple, black and clear crystal shards, wearing crushed crystals on their eyebrows and crystal-like designs on their bodies. On top of being inspired by nature, Lagerfeld cited Czech Cubism from the 20s and 30s as an inspiration behind his collection.

Image: Imaxtree
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #7

The art installation featured at the Grand Palais this time around was a fantasy garden of gargantuan proportions reminiscent perhaps of Alice's encounter in Wonderland. Once again in a laborious feat custom to every Chanel show, the 300 flowers decorating the Chanel Spring 2015 Haute Couture show took six months total to create.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #8

Art not only set the stage but performed the last number when fashion model Shalom Harlow was sprayed with paint by robots live during the finale of the Alexander McQueen Spring 1999 ready-to-wear show. As she twirled around on a circular platform, the machines carried out a choreographed dance, ejecting a futuristic design onto Harlow, leaving her to stumble toward the audience upon completion in a dramatic conclusion. McQueen "was inspired by an installation by artist Rebecca Horn of two shotguns firing blood-red paint at each other."

Image: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #9

Inside an empty glass pyramid a mysterious puff of white smoke emerged as a state-of-the-art hologram of Kate Moss was projected at Alexander McQueen’s Fall 2006 Widows of Culloden show, made by video maker Baillie Walsh. Moss appeared to dance around in a dream-like fashion for a few seconds, then shrank and disappeared into thin air.

Image: Getty
When Art Sets the Stage for Fashion #10

Marc Jacobs commissioned Creative Engineering NYC to build a large pink house in the middle of his runway for his Spring 2015 show. He finished off his set design with a lavender gravel runway over a hot pink rug, which stretched all the way into the bleachers. "The idea was to put everybody in their own world," Jacobs said of the fuchsia monochromatic backdrop that created an alternate reality for all attendees.

Image: Getty