“Art comes to life in a gallery of surreal proportions. A dress transforms into an artwork, back into a dress and into an artwork again. Poetry becomes reality, morphing back into fantasy.”
Dutch fashion designer duo Viktor & Rolf recently unveiled their wearable art collection at Paris’ Haute Couture Autumn Winter 2015 Fashion week. The Amsterdam-based duo transformed framed canvas artworks into haute-couture dresses, coats and skirts by taking them off a wall and draping them over models.
Viktor and Rolf unhooked the Baroque-style painting from the wall and rearranged them on the models drawing a very thin line between art and fashion. They reconfigured the sections of gilded frames and materials onto the models, lifting the pieces over their shoulders or up their legs in front of the audience to form dresses that were inspired by 17th-century Dutch Golden Age artwork.
“Intricate motifs parade the catwalk, transforming Golden Age paintings with the rawness and spontaneity of action painting,” Viktor and Rolf explained
At the end of the show, Dutch art collector Han Nefkens bought one of the pieces to donate to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.