Miro, Malevich, Mondrian – Art Protestors Who Inspire High Fashion

As I was saying in my post ‘From the Canvas to the Runway’ modern art was about the change of ideas. The Impressionist artists of the late 1890’s  saw no reason to continue  the work of the ancestors from Renaissance and Antiquity. They needed an inspiration and it came from Nature. The subject-matter of a painting shifted from war heroes and the elite towards quiet beaches and flower pots and crowded restaurants and theaters. Art became closer to people and it became easy to reproduce it in print. Anyone could appreciate the painting and have one on their wall.

The Impressionist set the wheel of modern art to motion and by 1930 the subject-matter was completely removed from the painting. We all heard Miro’s threat:

I want to assassinate painting! I intend to destroy, destroy everything that exists in painting. I have utter contempt for painting… I will break their [cubist] guitar.

He actually meant it – the artist started to tear up th canvases and work with other material, making collages.

Moreover they were more interested in lines and squares than in anything else. Art became geometrical and abstract.

What impact did it have on fashion?

In 1965 Yves Saint Laurent presented his Mondrian day dress thus paving the way for modern art in design. It’s interesting that actually ten years later Saint Laurent acquired two of Mondrian’s Compositions like the one below. Now abstract artists inspire  a lot of designers for making outfits, bags, shoes,jewelry because these kind of patterns are easy to apply to anything and you don’t have to go out of your way to make it look like a famous work by a famous painter. Try this nail art DIY, for example.

Why is it popular?

I think the answer is clear – simple motifs, bright and catchy colors. If it’s not straight lines and squares then it’s coiled up and bizarre – but all in all simple enough – the language of line and color. Look at these shoes, I guess you can make it happen, just take those markers and color!

Would you care for a Mondrian Dress or for a pair of Miro sneakers?

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The moment I saw these outfits  I told to myself – that is a perfect Modern Art Fashion illustration. The collection was launched in October 2012.

To the stores! Get yourself a little Mondrianie Christmas!

From The Canvas To The Runway

If we agree with Ricciotto Canudo that cinema is the seventh art that incorporates all of the visual arts together such as architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry (literature) and dance then what about fashion? I see designers drawing their inspiration from all the 7th arts, does it make fashion the 8th point on the list?
Well, with my high appreciation of it I wouldn’t say so. While creating an outfit, first and foremost, designers should see this image of their work already to determine what kind of look they are going for. Then they pick up a piece of paper and a pencil and begin forming up their vision in a sketch.
Images, looks, sketches – it all sounds like… a painting. A fashion design is a great way to reference a period of history, a public figure, national culture, art movement and etc.

So in today’s post I want to share some fashion ideas that were inspired by well-known modern art paintings, sometimes so well-know that we don’t know where it came from.
As you probably know modern art started paving its way into the world at the end of 19th century. It was all about change: change of the subject-matter, change of painting methods, and change of the audience. Now the painting doesn’t have to be flawless and balanced in a classical way, it doesn’t belong to that mantelpiece in the house of some rich person. It is from now on of the people, by the people, or the people.
The painters are looking back at the nature, admiring its colorful and simple beauty, they don’t think about the concept, they feel. Get the impression, make it your expression.

Inspired in my opinion by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Emil Nolde extremely vivid and colorful paintings.

The world started to open up and expand, the artist who tired of looking up to antiquity or renaissance as their shiny examples were happy to discover Japanese prints, African masks, prehistoric cave paintings.

Some like Paul Gauguin left hustle and bustle of Paris for an exotic place where one could paint with freedom with no standards and borders. Gauguin was the first to depict that unusual beauty of Tahitian women. I bet one of his models might have looked like Naomi Campbell. Here is the Vogue tribute to the artist and his works.

Gustav Klimt is another painter who had a significant influence on fashion. His works were rich in decoration especially in gold leaf tresses and metallic elements that really sparked up the clothes.

Dior did a great job in showing off this style.

Despite bright colors, diverse cultures and elaborate décor, fashion gets inspired by stories behind the canvas, say, fairy tale characters.

These looks are echoing Mikhail Vrubel´s “Swan Princess” painting.

I appreciate the design but I personally would go with a different type of make-up here. I think it ruins the romantic flair of the character and makes it colder than it truly is.

If you needed to choose a painting to describe your desired outfit what it would be?

Related Article:

A Painter’s Canvas on a Designer’s Runway

Miro, Malevich, Mondrian – Art Protestors Who Inspire High Fashion