Movement And Music Take Over Fashion
The art of fashion performance is getting a musical, movement-rich makeover
Fashion is moving. And by moving, I mean it's increasingly leaning toward performance art as a medium to showcase its designs and musical icons as a way to embed itself deeper into culture.
Hot Takes is my bullet point thoughts on fashion's hottest issues. These posts get to the heart of why people are talking about what they’re talking about, what this means, and where this could go next.Â
Think: what direction is fashion heading in? What’s new, innovative, and exciting? What's going on in fashion that's pissing people off?
Hot Takes ties fashion topics to a wider cultural and social context, digging into the often more significant meaning behind things.
So sit back, relax, and let's get into it. Here’s Hot Takes #22.
Let’s set the scene.
Fashion is pirouetting into the realm of performing arts with the grace of a prima ballerina, the daring spins of a figure skater, and the vibes of your favourite artists.
Designers are not just dressing models for the runway; niche labels and new platforms are crafting performances that merge dance, movement, music, and fashion into a seamless spectacle.
SUB BODY, an art performance by Alvilda Faber Striim, blends the fluidity of movement with the artistry of design, as seen in a specially crafted pair of jeans by Jonathan Evald.
Music-inspired fashion adds another layer to this pageantry, with Upstream debuted as the first fashion streaming service powered by music and video — a try-before-you-buy model where you can stream clothes like you do with music and buy brands worn by your favourite artists.
And Alasdair McLellan photographs Dior's fall menswear campaign in a mirror-lined dance studio inspired by Russian dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev.
It's as if the fabric of fashion itself is transforming into a living, breathing art form, inviting us to move, physically and metaphorically, forward with it.
The art of fashion performance
Fashion putting on a performance is a tale as old as time. After all, that’s the very essence of a good runway show.
But this entertainment concept is being given a 21st-century spin, where clothing is now performing a greater role in getting messages across and reshaping cultural codes.
Want to critique the patriarchy? Take down the systems that be? Express your creativity? There's most likely an outfit or fashion show that's done exactly that.
Balenciaga's multisensory runway shows set the tone for what fashion and performance art look like when they come together as one, and Vogue World is switching up the fashion show system with interpretive dance by Kate Moss and musical performances by Stormzy and Annie Lennox.
You've even got fashion provocateur Ye arguing that he dresses his wife Bianca Censori in minimalistic, scantily clad outfits as a type of 'performance art' — make of that what you will.
If one thing is for sure, it's that while we can debate and critique the fashion performance medium, the intended message often subverts, challenges, or informs. It goes deeper than just the clothing.
Music and fashions cultural crossover
The line between fashion and music has become so blurred that trying to separate them is like trying to unmix paint.
From the punk revolution that made safety pins high fashion to hip-hop’s embrace of streetwear as a form of self-expression, the symbiosis is undeniable.
This fusion has led to an explosion of creativity, where musicians such as David Bowie, Madonna, The Beatles, Rihanna and more have become fashion tastemakers and trendsetters in their own right — after all, it's this musical shift that got Skateboard P the top job at Louis Vuitton.
But artists are no longer content with making guest appearances and sitting FROW at fashion shows; they want to be a part of the action and are curating entire visual identities and fashion personas that their fandoms can imitate and embrace.
That's when they're not launching their own brands, of course, as Tyler The Creator did with Golf Wang or A$AP Rocky did with AWGE.
When exactly this musical fashion crossover first emerged is hard to pinpoint, but its cultural impact is immense, shaping trends, redefining style norms, and remixing society’s tastes in an endless loop of influence.
My two cents.
We're living in a time where fashion is moving, and movement is taking over fashion.
Fashion is joining the mile-high club and hitting high notes as it fandangos with performance art and continues to bleed into the music scene, transforming the very idea of what we know fashion to be.
A runway is no longer just a place for showcasing clothes; it's a space for brands to level up their sensory experiences and immerse audiences into their DNA in an otherworldly, you-had-to-be-there-and-see-it kind of way.
More and more artists are continuing to moonlight as brand ambassadors, with Pusha T and Lisa from Blackpink in at Louis Vuitton and BTS's Jin the first global ambassador for FRED Paris, infusing collections with their musical vibes and bringing their gargantuan fandoms along in the process.
And non-binary artists such as Vita Kari are pushing fashion boundaries by creating immersive performance artworks that blend visual art, movement, and sound through conceptual online videos and everyday IRL locations across America.
It's a remix of style, sound, and spectacle, where the lines between art forms are not just blurred — they're completely redrawn, setting the tone for a new-age fashion approach.
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Fashion is fascinating to me in the sense that it is as often vapid as it is reflective of the human experience. Some of it makes you laugh and scratch your head while at others times doing something truly unique and beautiful. Seeing clothing on music artists that you may enjoy that you can then buy certainly sounds like a moneymaker in waiting in some cases. The pictures in the article of Dior’s men’s campaign in some ways feels forward-thinking while in other ways appears to be selling effeminate attire that is only interesting in the sense of being experimental and seems like it is tailored to an audience of one, the designer.
Music and fashion have had influence in pop culture for quite a number of decades. While it is hard for me to see it as new, perhaps there is a resurgence. It used to be that television and film had a significant influence as well, but the things people see today feel far more spread out without as many shared experiences.
Interpretive dance is an interesting thing to think of at a fashion show, though in browsing through the linked article, it really sounds like the dance is meant to be in service to nothing more than the fashion itself. It’s my own personal opinion, but if dress on display is meant as art, it would speak much more deeply to the heart if it was in service to something else, like life lessons or illustrations of love, as opposed to just catching the eye. It’s kind of like leading the audience by the hand to nowhere in particular and turning around to tell them how great a time they had and ask what they learned along the way.