Rev olu tion

During Paris Fashion Week in fall of 2020, Celine released a menswear collection inspired by eccentricity. A bomber jacket decorated in gold served as the main asset of Celine’s collection showcasing a design originating from the paintings of Canadian artist Darby Milbrath (Dooley, 2019). The artwork covering the jacket, Angel’s Trumpets, adorns the fabric with bright yellow flowers intermingling with green stems, almost floating off the canvas. Milbrath’s painting was transformed into embroidery, lending the collection an extended textural complexity. The iconic piece of clothing crosses the boundaries of art and fashion, as Milbrath told Teen Vogue, “It makes sense that there was such a limited run of the jackets since each one was embroidered by hand by the brand, the details are staggering” (Dooley, 2019).

Fall 2020 witnessed another glimpse of Fauvism in Alexandra O’Neill’s Markarian collection for Vogue. “The palette of her taffeta dresses and crystal-trimmed gowns could have been lifted from a Matisse painting” said Emily Farra, a senior fashion news writer for Vogue (Farra, 2020). Young women have embraced O’Neill’s flamboyant party dresses in the collection, deeming them triumphant over the viciously rapid trend cycles seen today. With their bold red and pink hues, it’s no surprise that customers wear the dresses at weddings, holiday parties, and uptown soirées, highlighting both O’Neill’s work and her homage to Fauvism (Farra, 2020). This collection of reds and pinks exhibits a Fauvist nature reminiscent of Matisse’s paintings depicting boldly-colored figures embracing one another in moments of high emotion. Expressing emotion through a variety of colors remained prevalent in the South African clothing line The Bam Collective. Basing their 2022 collection on the movement, “Fauvism” incorporated a vibrant palette of yellows, pinks, and blues, emphasizing specific body parts while completely disregarding others (King, 2022). For The Bam Collective, it was essential to create a collection that strayed from traditional commercial clothing and instead encouraged freedom and happiness of the body. Bright pink and yellow statement jackets, worn over simple black and white undergarments, were highlighted on the runway, giving the jackets prominence over the sleek silhouettes. Unmistakingly characteristic of the movement, Fauvist qualities of intensity were seen in the collection’s cunning blue dresses that challenged the relationship between fashion’s conventional relationship with the body. According to the brand, the collection was created from emotion rather than logic (King, 2022).

Fauvism embodies an expressive statement that goes beyond the traditional perceptions of thinking. It rejects the natural world while embellishing existing colors to use them in a new way – the Fauvist way. As if “charges of dynamite,” the colors fuel an entirely new perception of art (André Derain, n.d.). A movement that transcends art and fashion, Fauvism’s manifestation in runway shows allows art to become wearable apparel that society can enjoy.