#Surreal runway couture series#

Unsurprisingly, the fashion world was largely confused by the combination of elegant evening gown and oversized crustacean, failing to pick up on the underlying symbolic message. Arguably the most iconic was the “Lobster Dress”, which gained worldwide notoriety when it was worn by American socialite Wallis Simpson and shot by Cecil Beaton for a Vogue editorial. The fruits of their collective labour were some of the most iconic pieces in sartorial history.

#Surreal runway couture series#

References to surrealism in high fashion can be traced back to the 1930s, when iconic Italian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli turned to artist Salvador Dalí for a series of collaborations. However, there is one movement in particular that has provided endless inspiration for the more avant-garde minds within the fashion industry. The parallels are still present, and they’re more prominent than ever. Ever since, the fashion industry has continued to be enamoured with the art world, often trawling its archives to find reference points for new work there was Yves Saint Laurent’s AW66 collection whose bold graphics were borrowed from the Pop Art movement there was Vivienne Westwood’s literal reinterpretation of Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s “Wedding Dress” designed for Dita Von Teese most importantly, there are still constant references to high art threaded throughout runway shows today, like Raf Simons’ frequent nods to Sterling Ruby and Gosha Rubchinskiy’s recent tribute to Timur Novikov. An early example can be found in the form of Giacomo Balla’s “anti-neutral clothing”, which saw his works of Futurist art transposed onto a series of menswear silhouettes. These chronological parallels later translated into direct references as designers began to look to various artworks for design inspiration. Around the same time an emerging arts scene was beginning to flourish in the French capital – the iconic Louvre was opened way back in 1848, followed swiftly by the opening of commercial galleries in the 1850s and 1860s by the Durand-Ruels and Bernheim-Jeune. Around 10 year later, in 1868, Charles Worth and his sons founded an association of couture houses entitled “The Chambre Syndicale De La Confection Et De La Couture Pour Dames Et Fillettes” – an association which, despite being renamed, is still responsible both for Fashion Week scheduling and for determining which houses are deemed fit for “haute couture” status almost 150 years later. It all began with Louis XIV who, back in the 18th century, dressed his “fashion dolls” in the styles of the time dolls which began to proliferate and became emblematic of a rising fashion scene in Paris. The parallels between high art and high fashion are obvious, frequently-recurring and date back for centuries.