By Fiona Sinclair Scott, CNN
Paris (CNN) — My official business in Paris this week was to attend the haute couture shows, but throughout my time in the French capital I kept bumping into art. This is unsurprising in a city where you can’t walk more than a few yards before being drawn into a gallery or museum, but art was also woven into many of the collections. Fashion and the art world have long been bedfellows, and haute couture in particular is as close to art as fashion gets, but there’s something else going on. My take: In a challenging economy, the luxury world is hustling to connect with its customers, and art and culture are tried and true conversation starters.
Even at Chanel — a brand that, with the creative steer of Matthieu Blazy, is having absolutely zero problems selling things — a live artist by the name of Joël Blanc was stationed front row to paint the show. Blazy’s collection centered on the idea of fairytales – the large twisting vines in the Grand Palais, recalling “Jack and the Beanstalk,” set the scene for whimsical storytelling through perfectly made clothes, with magic beans (and the occasional golden egg!) scattered throughout. See: delight-inducing shoes, a little row of ugly duckling to swan buttons, and a black revenge dress with wings that chased down the bridal gown.
Jonathan Anderson is a well-known lover, collector and curator of art, and within Dior he joins a long lineage of designers who had a similar partiality. Christian Dior himself was a gallery owner before he became a couturier and many of the creative directors of the house have been inspired by the artists of their time. For Anderson’s sophomore couture collection, presented within the Musée Rodin, he turned to the work of a more modern sculptor: Lynda Benglis. The 84-year-old American makes unruly mixed media sculptures that have challenged the traditional art establishment (conventionalists found her use of latex and glitter most unsettling). Benglis has worked all over the world, but it was her connection to Santa Fe, New Mexico and Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, India that Anderson became most enraptured with, and the colors and textures of these two very different landscapes appear throughout the collection.
While sitting in the grounds of the Musée Rodin, I could not help but think that it would have made a beautiful wedding venue for a certain very famous pop star and her sporty beau who, inexplicably, chose to celebrate their love in a filthy midtown stadium. Imagine instead, vows in front of Rodin’s “The Kiss,” cocktails within the beautiful 18th century former Hôtel Biron. But, alas, Anderson was only in charge of the dress.
While there were no literal art references at Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s first couture collection for the house was so artful. On top of being a master of the craft itself, the Italian is an emotional designer — so much of what he does is about generating a feeling, like joy, or one similar to that little choke you might experience from a song, or a film or a piece of art. “Couture isn’t only about the dress,” he told a small group of press backstage. “It’s about the mindset.”
Outside of the shows, I nipped into the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation, a place of pilgrimage for many fashion enthusiasts, and for good reason – it’s an emporium of archival fashion, books and art. It also features Alaïa’s studio, now entombed behind a circular glass window, completely untouched since his death, thanks in many ways to Carla Sozzani, a fashion fairy godmother of sorts, and the friend Alaïa left in charge of his legacy and archive. At the end of my visit, I asked Sozzani to describe Alaïa’s legacy and she quickly rep