The forward slash in the title Art / Fashion in the 21st Century suggests the complexity of the book’s subject, because to address the relationship and mutual nourishment between art and fashion is to identify and value how each respective discipline inhabits the other’s context. Nonetheless, the convergence between art and fashion is highly accomplished in Mitchell Oakley Smith and Alison Kubler ravishing tome. Suitably launching with a foreword by avant-garde, style maven Daphne Guinness, Art / Fashion in the 21st Century is an international survey of how the worlds of fashion and art have successfully collided in the new millennium.
Historically, the crossover between art and fashion is an established practice, yet Australian authors Oakley Smith, whose background resides in fashion, and Kubler whose profile is anchored in art, submit a dual perspective on how and why today’s artists and designers are increasingly receptive to inspiration beyond their own creative domains. Five thematic chapters illustrate this fascinating correlation whilst charting the creative, cultural and commercial interplay between the world’s leading artists and major fashion houses and key designers.
Insightful and engaging, this book is replete with visually arresting images and a number of essays and profiles that not only showcase the fashion-art connection but also challenges the traditional boundary between these two dynamic cultures.
Around 250 colour illustrations demonstrate the collaborative efforts between art and fashion’s output including: Chanel / Cindy Sherman, Christian Dior / Anselm Reyle, Hermès / Erwin Wurm, Longchamp / Tracey Emin, Louis Vuitton / Takashi Murakami, Marc Jacobs / Juergen Teller, Stella McCartney / Jeff Koons, Versace / Tim Roeloffs.
Words: Stephanie Talbot
Art / Fashion in the 21st Century
By Mitchell Oakley Smith and Alison Kubler
Publication by Thames & Hudson: 11 November 2013
Price: £29.95 hardback www.thamesandhudson.com
