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When does fashion stop being art?

Shannon Cook
Write About Art 2
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In 2009 renowned fashion house Easton Pearson’s designs were featured as an exhibit at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (22 August to 8 November 2009). Fashion, once regarded as merely craft has become sought after by major museums and galleries all around the world and is displayed as art. When fashion designers Lydia Pearson and Pamela Easton put pen to paper they hope to create something for ‘women who are quite possibly interested in art as much as fashion’. (Easton Pearson 1998) When we attempt to replicate the fashion trend they have created, it does not enter our consciousness that we may be wearing a valid art form. So when does fashion stop being art? Through its ability to convey self expression, fashion is art in a different context. While it has a practical function, it is worth exploring when artwork stops and mass consumption begins. 

To introduce this topic to the fashion sceptics, we firstly need to define what art is. Art is the quality, production, expression, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, challenging or of more than ordinary significance. (Dictionary.com 2009) Or more simply, it is an expression of self. For example, when you walk down the street, is everyone dressed the same? No, there is someone to your right wearing every colour imaginable from her jazz hat to her purple converse. On your left there is a boy wearing what looks like his sister’s black skinny jeans. Behind, you can hear the clacking of stilettos on the feet of a woman in a pencil skirt and frills. All these people live different lives, like different things, know different people and through their attire they... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Installation view of the ‘Easton Pearson’ exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art, 22 August – 8 November 2009. Photograph Ray Fulton, Queensland Art Gallery.

Installation view of the ‘Easton Pearson’ exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art, 22 August – 8 November 2009. Photograph Ray Fulton, Queensland Art Gallery.

Christian Lacroix: Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture A/W 2009/10 – Runway. Photograph Chris Moore/Catwalking. Courtesy Getty Images. 

Christian Lacroix: Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture A/W 2009/10 – Runway. Photograph Chris Moore/Catwalking. Courtesy Getty Images.