Re-presentation Policies of the Fashion Industry

1Re-presentation as a Form of Artistic and Cultural Legitimization

In 2003, fashion designer Alexander McQueen presented a fashion show explicitly inspired by the film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?². Presented as a dance competition, the show was particularly critical of the capitalist system, which structures the fashion and luxury industry. Asked backstage by a journalist who asked him “whether [he thought his show] was fashion or entertainment”, McQueen answered without hesitation: “It was art”³. In another interview, however, McQueen said, in reference to his brand, that “everything is for sale; everything”⁴, a statement that underscores the commercial dimension of his previously artistic activity. Although some fashion designers develop an indisputable esthetic, often celebrated as a work of art through media discourse, the economic models and goals that determine a fashion brand can compromise this dimension and the possible artistically oriented values that may result from it.

While fashion has regularly rubbed shoulders with the world of art, in various forms and practices, it remains nonetheless and even essentially a creative industry. Before becoming a couturier, Christian Dior was a great lover of art, visiting many of the artists of his time; one of Yves Saint Laurent’s most successful collections dates from 1965 and features motifs inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian. In Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is an institutional space dedicated to fashion, ...