Intrinsically linked, fashion and art have frequently collaborated with and taken inspiration from one another. Historically, fashion has rarely been elevated to the same stature as other mediums of art such as painting, music or architecture. But as one of the purest forms of creative expression, it is in a way an art lived in the everyday.

To this day, art and fashion collaborations are frequent and have proven to be very successful commercially as well as creatively. The intermingling of the two sparks refreshing discourse about the meaning and aesthetics of the two realms. Below, we’ve rounded up 6 of fashion and art’s most iconic moments together.

1. Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 1999

In McQueen’s monumental 1999 Spring/Summer show, Shalom Harlow stood on stage in a strapless white cotton dress as two robotic sprays painted her, in a fashion reminiscent to works by Jackson Pollock. While McQueen as a designer may not have specifically had the artist in mind, for much of the audience and the rest of the world, it was an immediate reference. This legendary moment still lives on to this day as one of the most epochal moments of fashion history. 

2. Yves Saint Laurent x Piet Mondrian

A designer who loved to celebrate art was Yves Saint Laurent. In 1965 he created the Mondrian collection, an ode to artist Piet Mondrian and his signature colour-blocked prints. The idea behind Yves’ dress was to highlight the influence of cubism in popular culture of the ’60s, which was visible in the architecture of the dress and the colour-blocked design. Resulting in a defined silhouette with a cleverly hidden structure, the dress was dubbed “the dress of tomorrow”, brilliantly capturing the zeitgeist of the era. 

3. Elsa Schapiarelli x Salvador Dalí

Elsa Schiaparelli was a designer deeply inspired by Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism, so it was no surprise when she teamed up with Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali. The two created a silk summer evening gown called the “Organza Dinner Dress with Painted Lobster” which Wallis Simpson wore for a Vogue spread in 1937. This iconic dress has reappeared several times in the past century, while Anna Wintour herself gave a subtle nod to the iconic dress, as she stepped onto the Met Gala red carpet in 2012 wearing a beaded lobster dress.