By Kristine Urban. Cover image: Kristine Urban and Rosy Ramirez.
In some ways, fashion is poetry and can also be inspired by poets. Fashion often intersects with various art forms as designers draw inspiration from different disciplines, bringing new and innovative ideas to the fashion industry. Poetry is also a way to bridge different languages and convey deeper meanings that elevate the overall experience of a luxury brand. By incorporating poetry into fashion shows, designers can engage the audience’s senses and create a more artistic and immersive experience.
Poetry plays a crucial role in creating the atmosphere of a collection and contributes to the emotional experience of a fashion show. Narratives help the audience connect with the messages behind a collection. In this article, we will explore six unforgettable collaborations between poets, artists, and fashion designers. Ready to record how fashion & poetry collab makes difference in fashion design?
Fashion & Poetry, how 7 effective collabs will make history
1. Rick Owens DRKSHDW Poem Print Shirt – Spring Summer 2023
Rick Owens stands out as a visionary designer who consistently pushes boundaries and challenges conventions. His DRKSHDW line, known for its avant-garde aesthetic and conceptual designs, continues to captivate the fashion world. One piece stands out because it combines Rick Owen’s sartorial innovation with a more sensitive and poetic expression: the poem print shirt. DRKSHDW uses a simple black or white T-shirt as a canvas for Owens’ distinctive approach to fashion as a form of art. The DRKSHDW Text-Level T-Shirt serves as a manifestation of Rick Owens’ philosophy of fashion as a means of self-expression and introspection. By incorporating poetry into wearable art, Owens encourages wearers to ponder deeper questions about identity, mortality, and the human condition. The poem on the t-shirt reflects Owens’ musings on time and creativity, providing an insight into his inspiration for creating DRKSHDW.
2. Peter Do and Ocean Vuong for Helmut Lang – Spring/Summer 2024
When it comes to celebrate the most intriguing fashion & poetry collabs of all time, Helmut Lang cannot be overlooked.The creative director eter Do debuted his minimalist style with Helmut Lang, and a main tenet of his collection was expressed with the help of renowned writer and poet Ocean Vuong. Both Vuong and Do share a Vietnamese heritage, which is an integral part of their work both separately and together. The collection was imbued with memories and paid tribute to Do’s late father and their relationship.
Vuong’s words added depth and emotion to the message, with fragments from his poetic works, like “Touch me so I know I am still here”. This line was printed on the catwalk, symbolising the immateriality and dissociation of being and how touch can bring us together. Ironically, the models walked down the catwalk, stepping all over the words. Do tapped into the power of words by working with the poet Vuong for an impactful collaboration.
3. Thom Browne Fall/Winter 24-25 show: reading Edgar Allan Poe’s poems
Thom Browne and Edgar Allan Poe: an intriguing fashion and poetry collab, don’t you think? For his last show, Thom Browne introduced his collections for both men and women, which were accompanied by an eerie Edgar Allan Poe-inspired setting. While models graced the catwalk in a fittingly haunting manner, actress Carrie Coon recited Poe’s famous poem, The Raven.
At the centre of the stage, one model was elevated and dressed in a monstrous black puffer coat with hair styled to resemble a tree in reference to the poem’s line, “Once upon a midnight dreary, in a snow-clad field idle and eerie, a tree stands amid the haze, shrouded in silk moiré, a 30-foot chesterfield puffer, the children come out from under, eager to hear a grim, grim tale”. True to the poem, children came out from underneath the coat to emphasise this significant line. The show as a whole is a nod to the late poet Poe and established itself as a contemporary fixture in the world of fashion shows, where the event is treated as more than just a performance.
4. Valentino Menswear “The Narratives” Spring/Summer 2024
Valentino’s recent Spring/Summer 2024 menswear collection focused on quotes from the book A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. The collection was considered a moment of redefining masculinity and male identity by introducing a new perspective. The former creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli (now replaced by Alessandro Michele) aimed to challenge societal conventions and promote change from within the system, extending to the fashion advertised to men. The book is integral to the fashion show for its content, as it traces the lives of four young men and their experiences. Texts from the book are printed in monochromatic black or white outfits to underline the reexamination of narratives – both the narratives that are told to us and the ones that we hold within us.
5. The unforgettable from the past: Jenny Holzer x Helmut Lang
When Helmut Lang and Jenny Holzer first came together to create ‘I Smell You On My Clothes’ for the 1996 Florence Biennale, it was really an uncommon collaboration. In a constructed space, Helmut Lang pumped in a fragrance meant to evoke the scent left by a lover on the sheets. Jenny Holzer produced an LED sign that displayed phrases like: ‘You are the one who did this to me’, ‘You are my own’. Combining their similar approaches (described by Holzer as ‘a little mean, and less-is-more’), their work together challenged the boundaries of fashion, perfumery, architecture, and art, raising the bar for future multi-disciplinary collaborations. Two years later, when Helmut Lang opened his boutique/art gallery in New York, they collaborated again.
The white space wasn’t immediately recognisable as a store. One of Holzer’s LED pieces took centre stage, repeating monosyllabic messages. For his specialist perfume store and the launch of the brand’s first fragrance in 2000, Lang teamed up with Holzer once more. With no product shots and a tiny logo, the iconic anti-advertising campaign invested in the conceptual rather than the commercial. Lang and Holzer’s work rejected convention, making viewers question the lines between commerce, art, and high fashion.
6. Ann Demeulemeester Spring/Summer 2015
At 16 years old, the Belgian designer Ann Demuelemeester discovered Patti Smith by listening to the album Horses, which led her to develop a bohemian sensibility. The Beat Generation’s words also resonated with her. Patti Smith’s androgynous and punk attitude became Demeulemeester’s main influence in designing her collection with poetic wordsmithing and an androgynous flair. According to Ann, “Patti Smith’s work was done for those who wanted in, the poets and the punks.” Ann specifically chose E.E. Cummings’ poem to criticise the mating rituals of men and women. She tends to use poetry in tandem with fashion to emphasise important statements.
7. Alexander McQueen Dante, Fall/Winter 1996
In 1996, Alexander McQueen designed a collection that went down in history; it was titled Dante and paid homage to Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy. This is arguably the most incredible, gothic, eccentric, and captivating fashion & poetry collab of all time. The collection was showcased at Christ Church in Spitalfields, featuring a dark and eerie altar. Through a range of corsets, hats, lace, jewellery, and denim, it introduced the trailblazing English designer to a global audience.
