Fashion has always borrowed from the art world (and vice versa!) but this season the dialogue feels bolder and unmistakable. In Milan and New York, runways transformed into living galleries, merging painting, sculpture, and sound with the movement of fashion. From Bottega Veneta’s sculptural debut to Ulla Johnson’s homage to Helen Frankenthaler, designers are reminding us that art is not just hung on walls — it’s worn, embodied, and brought to life with every step, and we love to follow along!

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Louise Trotter’s first collection for Bottega Veneta was staged beneath a mesmerizing sculptural canopy (above) by artist Kwangho Lee—a cascade of knotted cords that reimagined the house’s Intrecciato weave. Can’t you imagine this in our gallery windows? Would be divine! The set became more than backdrop: it was a living metaphor for craftsmanship and interconnection. Layered with a haunting soundtrack curated by filmmaker Steve McQueen, the presentation spoke to restraint, precision, and the quiet drama of material exploration. Every detail whispered intention, proving that simplicity can hold the weight of art.

In this season’s shows, the runway became a gallery in motion.

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Versace offered a striking counterpoint. Designer Dario Vitale chose Milan’s Pinacoteca Ambrosiana as his canvas, letting Renaissance masterworks form the literal walls of the runway. Here, archival references met bold provocation: sharp tailoring softened into flowing lines, masculine tropes disrupted by feminine fluidity. The effect was theatrical yet deeply considered, reminding us that fashion can be both heritage and rebellion, a performance staged between the weight of history and the push of the contemporary.

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Across the ocean, Ulla Johnson offered a softer meditation at New York’s Cooper Hewitt Museum. In collaboration with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, her Spring collection flowed with painterly abstraction — gradients and color fields that translated Frankenthaler’s soak-stain technique into light as air silk and chiffon. A recording of the artist’s voice played during the show, underscoring the dialogue between garment and canvas. Here, art was not backdrop but lifeblood: the brushstroke became fabric, the painting became movement. These pieces are wearable and collectable: the perfect fusion of art and fashion.

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What unites these moments is their conviction that fashion can be more than trend — it can be immersive art. In Milan, the experience was architectural and symphonic: art installations, soundscapes, and garments fused into total environments. In New York, Johnson distilled abstraction into something intimate, where the very air seemed painted with color. Both perspectives reframe the runway: not as commerce, but as gallery, stage, and atelier in one.

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At Gallery MAR, we see these runways as kin to our own walls: spaces where art is made to be lived with, not just looked at. Whether it’s the architectural edge of Trotter’s tailoring, the daring theatricality of Versace, or the poetic washes of Johnson, these collections invite us to carry art beyond the gallery doors. They remind us that creativity isn’t static but it’s moving, breathing, and always evolving — as are we!

Tags: Art Meets Fashion, Bottega Veneta, designers as artists, Helen Frankenthaler, Kwangho Lee
Posted in Gallery Insights