George Hoyningen-Huene, Art in Fashion: Balenciaga, Ballets Ruses, Paris, 1928; image from Staley-Wise Gallery
Fashion imitates art. The great couturier Balenciaga drew a lot of inspiration from Spanish painters like Goya and Zurbarán. But he also borrowed from more contemporary artists like Picasso and Miro, as evidenced from this photograph by French Vogue photographer George Hoyningen-Huene. One of the themes that runs through Hoyningen-Huene’s fashion photography is clothes relationship to art; his models, in draped gowns cut on the bias that show off the female form, often pose next to sculptures that echo their dresses’ folds and shape. “Form and Fashion,” at the Staley-Wise Gallery in New York City, takes a look at his formalist masterpieces, as well as those of contemporary photographer Kurt Markus.
