It is the season where celebrities walk down the red carpet showcasing exquisite ensembles, a season where designers go crazy with their concepts created to align with the theme. You guessed it right! This is all about the Met Gala and Cannes Film Festival fashion frenzy that has the town talking.
At first glance, fashion and architecture might seem like distinct fields, but they share a common goal: to create art that embodies design, concept, and beauty. Despite serving different purposes, both disciplines are linked by similar design principles, material innovations, and cultural significance. Are you curious to see the influence of architectural design on fashion? Let?s explore this in the article.

Gigi Hadid at Met-gala 2024 (Left), the conceptual sketch of the design (right) ? vogue

The fashion architecture, its design conception, and working around the themes, The Garden of Time and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, by the designers, provide a common platform for understanding the development of the ensembles. One can draw parallels from the process, of creating the ensemble to the architectural design, working around a concept, and developing details based on this.

One must also notice the commonalities in design that exist between fashion and architecture. This is easily drawn from the ensembles adorned at the Met Gala by Coco Rocha, Mindy Kaling, and Mona Patel, which involve a sculptural aspect. A commonality in the beautiful execution of the design of the ensemble and architecture is the employment of scale and proportion.

As Coco Chanel famously stated, ?Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.?

The scale of the elements amalgamated into the fabric or the structure must harmonize with the context, the human dimensions, and the visual frames. When it comes to fashion, designers consider the proportions of the human body, thereby crafting garments that enhance and complement the wearer?s silhouette. Both disciplines rely on mathematical precision and artistic intuition to achieve balance and harmony. Undoubtedly, the two employ this design principle to create pieces of art.

The design by Mindy Kaling, created by Gaurav Gupta, is inspired by the sculptural aspects of origami, creating a distinct style of origami fashion design. The designer, known profoundly for his avant-garde couture, encompasses a design style that involves innovation and radicality, a common feature observed in modernist buildings such as those by Zaha Hadid.

The fabric’s luxury of design and detail repeatedly draws inspiration from history and architecture. For instance, the beauty of Baroque architecture was parallel to the elaborate garments of the era. Similarly, modernist clean lines and functionalism have echoed current fashion trends. Both serve as reminders of historical records, encompassing their respective periods’ aesthetic and cultural values.

Tyla?s ensemble, made of sand, beautifully depicts how important material palette and innovation are for the execution of the concept, which is very similar to experimentation in architecture. The use of sand as a design language to show the organic element and the transient nature of the garden is very similar to the material palettes chosen in architecture. Though the inspirations may not be direct, they are subconscious inspirations drawn by the artists.

Both fashion and architecture can serve as mediums for social commentary. Fashion designers often use their collections to address issues such as gender, politics, and identity. Architects have also played a crucial role in shaping the political paradigm that involves gender and identity through the design of public spaces and structures, by contributing through structures that comment on urbanization, environmentalism, and social equity. Similarly, the punk fashion movement of the 1970s was a direct response to the political and economic climate of the time.

In conclusion, the dialogue between fashion and architecture enriches both fields, fostering a cross-disciplinary exchange that enhances creativity and innovation. Whether a dress’s silhouette or a city’s skyline, the art of design indicates human ingenuity and our enduring quest for beauty and functionality. One cannot say it is solely fashion that draws inspiration from architecture, but architecture can also draw inspiration from fashion, indeed the two serve pieces of art relished and enjoyed by the spectators.

Sources

• https://www.instyle.com/coco-rocha-flower-dress-2024-cannes-film-festival-8653805
• https://www.vogue.com/article/gigi-hadid-2024-met-gala?epik=dj0yJnU9V2NWUnhvQV9jZWlUTHJySWpMVHFqSFdyN2lITjFFTXEmcD0wJm49ZHYzdWJXTlVhdUQzZlU2QjBKVzRVQSZ0PUFBQUFBR1pYQURV
• https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/red-carpet-dresses/g60778093/best-dressed-red-carpet-photos-cannes-film-festival-2024/
• https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/sand-dress-met-gala-1236359062/