The Best Fashion Moments From Classic Art
Art and fashion go hand in hand. Art informs fashion and fashion, in turn, informs and influences art. Here are some of the most striking uses of fashion in classic art through the ages.
A Portrait of Madame X
Photo courtesy of the Met Museum
One look at A Portrait of Madame X and it is easy to see why this is one of the most iconic dresses in classic art. The woman, Madame Pierre Gautreau, is clad in a stunningly elegant floor length gown that would still be stylish today. The dress emphasizes her curves and sinches at her waist, showing off her daring personal style.
In the original painting, one of the thin straps slips off of her shoulder suggestively, but Sargent repainted the strap after the painting received ridicule at the Salon in 1884. At the time, this choice was considered beyond scandalous; it was lewd and tacky, and ruined the reputations of both the model, who was already considered a woman of loose morals, and the artist.
Today, however, the painting is remembered as one of Sargent’s most famous works, and the model looks stoic, beautiful, and elegant.
The Kiss
Photo: Belvedere via My Modern Met
Intricately complex patterns on beautiful golden robes. Hair interlaced with jewel colored flowers and green crowns of ivy. Golden vines streaming off of a dress and into a meadow of whimsically magical flowers, so it is unclear where nature starts and textile begins.
The lovers in The Kiss are shrouded in gold and nature in a soft, magical light. The painting, from ethereal master Gustav Klimpt, is an example of portraiture that uses clothing as an important storytelling tool, rather than a simple prop. In this painting, the story is sentimental and intimate. The man’s robes are geometric, whereas the woman's are organic, differentiating the two characters and their positioning in the painting. And yet, the gold leaf detailing intertwines the lovers so that it is not totally clear where he ends and she begins; they are joined together in love not only through their embrace, but through their beautiful robes.
Self Portrait with a Necklace of Thorns
Photo Courtesy of FridaKahlo.org
Self Portrait with a Necklace of Thorns, one of Frida Kahlo’s most famous artworks, shows how symbolic clothing can be. In this painting, she is wearing a necklace of thorns that draw pricks of blood from her neck. Also hanging from her neck is a small black hummingbird, thought to symbolize a good luck charm for falling in love, or else, an Aztec war god. Kahlo suffered with chronic pain and infertility throughout her life, and many of her paintings show a reclamation of her own body and identity.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring
Photo: Lex van Lieshout via the Smithsonian Magazine
One of the most classic paintings of all time, The Girl with The Pearl Earring is one of Dutch master Vermeer’s best works. Vermeer was known for genre paintings, which means that he depicted people (mostly women) performing everyday tasks.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring is an especially intimate painting, giving the viewer the feeling that they are looking directly into the girl’s eyes. The painting has an air of mystery because it is not a portrait of a particular person, but rather of a character modeled by the girl being painted. The robe, head wrapping, and pearl earring worn by the girl are exotic. Soft blues and yellows mirror the soft colors of her face. In terms of clothing in paintings, they are particularly striking because of their soft folds and careful arrangement. The Girl with the Pearl Earring simply looks beautiful in her garments.
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Photo Courtesy of The Phillips Collection
This busy, carefully composed painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in which a group of friends laughs and lunches, is considered to be one of the best French paintings ever. It is a masterclass in combining portraiture, landscape, and still life painting. Each character is busy doing something that draws the viewer's eye to them, yet everyone is completely unaware that they are being watched. They are relaxed, happy, and their joy is contagious.
Everyone is in various stages of dress, emphasizing the casual nature of the lunch and the closeness of the friends. There are men in undershirts, summer blazers and boating hats, and full tails and top hats. Women are more uniformly put together, in pretty summer dresses and hats. Yet everyone looks incredibly chic, dressed in well composed outfits in the fashion of the early 20th century.
Best dressed are a woman in a pretty elbow length cream colored dress with bright red trim and a floppy straw hat with a blue ribbon and a gentleman wearing a collared shirt under an ecru linen blazer that any man would look fashionable in today.
The Swing
Photo Courtesy of Smarthistory
Against a background of lush greens and mysterious blues, a young woman in a pale pink, ruffly gown swings into the sky, casting off one of the slippers on her pale feet. While seemingly innocent now, the visible underskirts meant that this painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was considered to be private and erotic when it was painted in the late 18th century. The woman’s billowing, silken dress and charming little kitten heels mark her as an aristocrat, as well as one of the better dressed women in classical art.
American Gothic
Photo courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
Perhaps the most famous painting by an American artist, the ambiguous American Gothic, painted by Grant Wood,depicts a farmer and his daughter posing outside their home. While the meaning of the painting has long been discussed and debated, the clothing worn by the subjects is relatively straightforward. It is modest, midwestern, midcentury. A brown dress worn over a high neck collared shirt, fastened at the neck with a delicate oval pin. A grandad collar shirt underneath a pair of overalls and a blazer. These combinations indicate a blue collar family that has worked hard to look their best. And they do. Frankly, I would wear any of the pieces that both the daughter and the father don today.