Rendezvous: When Art and Fashion Meet. “Mystery” look by Mariya Milovidova.

Fashion is changing, art is everlasting. Fashion requires compromises, art is uncompromising. Fashion is designed for people, art is for mankind. But sometimes fashion and art meet, exchange, communicate, collaborate and create together.

Basically, the dialogue between art and fashion can be seen in two different forms: inspiration or collaboration.

1. Inspiration:

By inspiration I mean that a fashion designer was inspired by existing artwork, as was the case with the classic and iconic Yves Saint Laurent 1965 dress, inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian:

Yves Saint Laurent's "Mondrian" 1965 dress

or Nicholas Kirkwood, inspired by Keith Haring's illustrations:

Kirkwood has used Haring's classicslike Safe Sex and Radiant Baby in hisfootwear collection

2. Collaboration:

By collaboration I mean that a fashion designer and an artist work together to create a wearable piece of art.

To mention a few, Robb Pruitt and Jimmy Choo:

Artist Robb Pruitt's signature pandathroughout Jimmy Choo collection

Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton:

Collection of bags Takashi Murakamidesigned for LV fashion house

Richard Prince and Louis Vuitton:

Prince's nurse paintings came tolife on the Paris runway and beyond

But sometimes, a fashion designer and an artist is one person, and the boundaries between art and fashion are removed. Mariya Milovidova, a Bay Area designer and artist, owner of Mariya Milovidova Art and Fashion, is an example of this merger.

Her dresses' designs are inspired by her own paintings.

When I asked Mariya about the way she creates, she answered:

“I create my painting and artworks at the same time. The way I designed my latest collection, it consists of a 3-step process. First, I come up with a painting. Then, I come up with the design and the fabric that would go well with the painting. To me, the texture of the fabric has to match the feel of the artwork. The last step is the production process.”

Then I asked Mariya whether fashion or art were more important in her creations, and she simply said: “To me, art is fashion and fashion is art.”

When you look at her creations, you understand why she could not have answered differently.

All pictures by Galina Kuzyakova
MUA: Makeup by Lana
Dress and artwork: Mariya Milovidova
Idea: Rue1 showroom

All pictures by Eugene Polyak
MUA: Makeup by Lana
Dress and artwork: Mariya Milovidova
Idea: Rue1 showroom

About the “Rendezvous” project:

The “Rendezvous” project was launched by Rue1 showroom and is a meeting point between art and fashion. The goal of this project is to bring together in one fashion shoot a local Bay Area designer's collection piece and a local artist's artwork. Those two fashion and art creations should be somehow linked. The global goal of this project, as it is of all Rue1 showroom's projects, is to showcase local Bay Area designers and allow them to get more visibility through creative fashion shoots, events etc.