You may not think of Instagram as a space to brush up on your art history, but there’s more to everyone’s favorite social media app than contouring tutorials and dream breakfasts. The fashion world and the art world have often intersected, from Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 Mondrian shift dresses to Rodarte’s 2012 van Gogh sunflower prints and now the relationship has gone digital. We’ve stumbled upon 14 fashion art history feeds on Instagram that dig up gorgeous black-and-white photos from the fashion archives, share exquisite museum-worthy antique pieces and zoom in on the sartorial details hidden in classic paintings.
As if we needed another excuse to scroll, these accounts and their celebrations of the collision between art and fashion are surprisingly educational, giving you a sense of a trend’s place in fashion history. So if you’re one of those old souls who feels like they were born in the wrong century — or just a fashion lover who hearts art — you’ll definitely want to hit follow. These feeds’ illuminating looks into fashion’s artistic roots will make you do a double-take and a double-tap.
The Best Fashion Art History Feeds on Instagram
-
@artgarments
Art Garments' feed of "flounces and fripperies" is updated by an anonymous pair of New York City-based fashion historians who highlight art history's best fashion moments in breathtaking detail. "My instinct at museums is always to touch my nose to the canvas to study brushstrokes or the combination of colours to achieve a particular effect, but of course, there are security guards and ropes and alarms," explained one of the Instagrammers in an interview with AnOther Magazine. To that end, they zoom in on gorgeous minutiae that would be easy to miss: diaphanous lace sleeves, jewels that seem to really sparkle, tendrils of hair.
Image: @artgarments
-
@retrofashionphotography
London luxury fashion and textile designer Lizzie Montgomery curates a few popular fashion-centric feeds, but our favorite is Retro Fashion Photography. She dusts off images from the portfolios of legendary fashion photographers, like Irving Penn, David Bailey and Horst P. Horst and the vintage outfits are always amazing.
Image: @retrofashionphotography
-
@the_art_of_dress
Serious students of fashion will drool over historian Cassidy Zachary's feed focused on turn-of-the-century sartorialism, The Art of Dress. With an especial eye for the clothing of the 1910s (think Titanic and Downton Abbey), each update is like a bite-sized fashion lesson elucidating the cultural significance of what you're seeing.
Image: @the_art_of_dress
-
@fashofthetitans
"Who wore it better?" asks Fash of The Titans, Instagram's cheekiest art-history-meets-contemporary-fashion account. Each post is a head-to-head pairing of a runway look and a strikingly similar piece of classic art, like this mash-up between a Blumarine Spring 2016 dress and an untitled Cy Twombly painting.
Image: @fashofthetitans
-
@shoesinart
"To wear dreams on one's feet is to begin to give reality to one's dreams," said Roger Vivier, the inventor of the stiletto heel. Devon Head, a British stylist and self-described "men's shoe freak," agrees and her feed Shoes in Art is proof. Her close-ups of royal feet clad in satin slippers, neoclassic gladiator sandals, be-buckled boots and more will satisfy anyone with a fetish for footwear.
Image: @shoesinart
-
@copylab
Artist Chris Rellas' tongue-in-cheek work as CopyLab takes the stuffiness out of art history. He juxtaposes iconic works of art with cutting-edge fashion, splicing a Givenchy T-shirt into a 17th century portrait, slapping a Rolex logo onto a melting Dalí clock or accessorizing a Madonna and Child with a bottle of Chanel N°5.
Image: @copylab
-
@fidmmuseum
For a BTS look at this Los Angeles museum's collections, follow FIDM Museum's fashion-packed feed. From pics of piles of vintage labels to historical photos of classic designers at work, its mission is "to be the global resource for the study of fashion – past, present, and future."
Image: @fidmmuseum
-
@paridust
Pari Ehsan is a fashion blogger with a high-brow taste for art. She dresses up in hot-off-the-runway looks and poses in front of classic and contemporary artworks that match her outfit's vibe, illustrating the romance between fashion and art — like these Frank Stella prints she paired with an Edun dress. (Check out our interview with Pari Dust.)
Image: @paridust
-
@nyucostumestudies
The in-house Instagram of NYU's Costume Studies department is a crash course in "dress and textiles in a broad aesthetic and cultural context." Its posts on styles both ancient and modern are also a great way to keep your finger on the fashion history pulse with posts about exhibitions and events happening worldwide.
Image: @nyucostumestudies
-
@the_corsetedbeauty
For nothing but finery, follow The Corseted Beauty, an account with a penchant for Rococo, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian styles: ballgowns, ruffles, brocade and of course, more waist-training than even a Kardashian's feed. The curator posts both photos of the real deal (museum-worthy antique pieces), but also examples of vintage fashion in paintings and stills from Hollywood period pieces.
Image: @the_corsetedbeauty
-
@fitspecialcollections
With pics pulled from the more than 3,200 rare manuscripts (that's 5,000 linear feet of pages) housed at the Fashion Institute of Technology's special collections in New York City, this account provides endless scrolling. The library specializes in American fashion, textiles and interior design — you can look forward to seeing lots of high-quality scans of designer sketches, advertising archives and fashion illustrations in your feed.
Image: @fitspecialcollections
-
@fashiontextilemuseum
The print-obsessed should follow London's Fashion and Textile Museum for a feed drowning in the dizziest, ditsiest patterns. Missoni zigzags, indigenous weaving, psychedelic Liberty florals and textiles inspired by the work of famous artists like Tibor Reich will keep you coming back for more and more #textileporn.
Image: @fashiontextilemuseum
-
@documentingfashion_courtauld
London's The Courtauld Institute of Art curates an account which chronicles fashion "as image, as object, as text, as an experience, and as an industry." This feed documents fashion from every angle of art history, from street style snaps of uniformed 70s schoolgirls to the traditional beaded jewelry of farmers in Benin.
-
@isabellabradfordauthor
If you swoon over 18th century fashion, you'll definitely want to follow Isabella Bradford who, simply put, likes "old things." The best-selling historical romance author celebrates her love affair with period fashion, sharing pics of over-the-top wigs, larger-than-life bustles, frilly petticoats and impossibly corseted waists.
Image: @isabellabradfordauthor
