Vincent Mauerhofer
Research Question
Volume II Number 2
MA Fashion Design Management
Master Dissertation, 2026
Introduction
Fashion x Art
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
Everyone does artist collaborations now.
Most of them are skin-deep.
In 1999, two industrial robots spray-painted a dress directly onto a model who was standing on a rotating platform as part of the finale of Alexander McQueen's collection No. 13; it appeared to be much more in the nature of performance art than a typical fashion show (Malani, 2026).
That boundary has always been there. In the 1930s Elsa Schiaparelli worked very closely with both Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau as a result of which it became difficult to tell the garments apart from the artworks: a lobster painted on silk, a hat shaped like a shoe (Oakley Smith and Kubler, 2013).
At its most ambitious, fashion has always had an attitude of flirtation towards the status of art.Later designers approached the same question in a more detached and conceptual way. Raf Simons regarded a collection not as a product line but as a statement centred on art, music and youth culture, and later translated a contemporary artist's world into haute couture at Dior. When designers think and work in the way that artists do, the boundary between the two fields begins to seem less like a wall and more like a negotiation (Geczy and Karaminas, 2012).
What occurs when a fashion house invites a real artist in? In some cases the two worlds actually come together, in others the artist is merely given a name or one of his prints. This project is concerned with that difference and with a more difficult question connected to it: how should a collaboration between a fashion house and an artist be organised so that the outcome has genuine cultural significance rather than just appearing to be prestigious?
Most of them are skin-deep.
In 1999, two industrial robots spray-painted a dress directly onto a model who was standing on a rotating platform as part of the finale of Alexander McQueen's collection No. 13; it appeared to be much more in the nature of performance art than a typical fashion show (Malani, 2026).
That boundary has always been there. In the 1930s Elsa Schiaparelli worked very closely with both Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau as a result of which it became difficult to tell the garments apart from the artworks: a lobster painted on silk, a hat shaped like a shoe (Oakley Smith and Kubler, 2013).
At its most ambitious, fashion has always had an attitude of flirtation towards the status of art.Later designers approached the same question in a more detached and conceptual way. Raf Simons regarded a collection not as a product line but as a statement centred on art, music and youth culture, and later translated a contemporary artist's world into haute couture at Dior. When designers think and work in the way that artists do, the boundary between the two fields begins to seem less like a wall and more like a negotiation (Geczy and Karaminas, 2012).
What occurs when a fashion house invites a real artist in? In some cases the two worlds actually come together, in others the artist is merely given a name or one of his prints. This project is concerned with that difference and with a more difficult question connected to it: how should a collaboration between a fashion house and an artist be organised so that the outcome has genuine cultural significance rather than just appearing to be prestigious?
Photos: Courtesy of Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby (2); Sterling Ruby/Hauser & Wirth/Photo by Robert Wedemeyer.
The landscape:
Fashion and the art world are entangled
The Field
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
Luxury doesn’t just borrow from art anymore.
It builds the museums.
Foundations, prizes, collections, gallery partnerships: the big houses have moved into the art world as infrastructure, not just inspiration. That closeness is what lends a collaboration its legitimacy, and what can also make it look like a strategy.
It builds the museums.
Foundations, prizes, collections, gallery partnerships: the big houses have moved into the art world as infrastructure, not just inspiration. That closeness is what lends a collaboration its legitimacy, and what can also make it look like a strategy.
Luxury doesn’t just borrow from art anymore.
It builds the museums.
Foundations, prizes, collections, gallery partnerships: the big houses have moved into the art world as infrastructure, not just inspiration. That closeness is what lends a collaboration its legitimacy, and what can also make it look like a strategy.
It builds the museums.
Foundations, prizes, collections, gallery partnerships: the big houses have moved into the art world as infrastructure, not just inspiration. That closeness is what lends a collaboration its legitimacy, and what can also make it look like a strategy.
A short history:
From surface to substance
Timeline
March 2047
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Fashion and art have been circling each other for a century.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Genuine ↔ staged:
A spectrum
The core distinction
March 2047
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Not good or bad. A question of depth.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Meaning is made, not found
George Dickie
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
Cultural meaning isn’t in the object. We put it there.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Meaning is made, not found
George Dickie
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
Cultural meaning isn’t in the object. We put it there.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Depth vs. Surface: the Aura
Walter Benjamin
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
A print is a picture of the art. Depth is the art, translated.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Who holds the pen?
Creative Authority
March 2047
Aenean nisl nulla, porttitor suscipit
Two signatures, not one.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Ut ornare arcu eros, at condimentum enim imperdiet vitae. Morbi lorem augue, commodo vel ipsum ac, sollicitudin placerat urna. Praesent sit amet mauris tortor. Duis ac risus sem. Fusce at elementum justo, ac mollis turpis. Pellentesque accumsan purus ut tristique bibendum. Nam feugiat sit amet enim in vehicula.
Praesent bibendum a elit non efficitur. Etiam et velit vitae quam aliquet fermentum. Quisque sit amet nulla dictum, cursus erat a, tempus est. Sed laoreet, magna eget mattis tincidunt, felis tellus vestibulum augue, in lobortis mauris risus eu nunc.
Vincent Mauerhofer
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