The art world tends to go by a fairly antiquated definition of the word muse. According to art writer Germaine Greer, a muse is “the feminine part of the male artist … She is the anima to his animus, the yin to his yang, except that, in a reversal of gender roles, she penetrates or inspires him and he gestates and brings forth, from the womb of the mind.”
In the fashion realm, a muse often takes the form of a model or cultural icon with je ne sais quoi for days — and a major sense of style to match. (For Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing that person is Kim Kardashian, for Jeremy Scott it’s Soo Joo Park.) With a myriad of beautiful and intriguing women to dress, designers rarely limit themselves to just one or two muses. These days, most creative directors boast an ever-rotating #squad.
That said, often the figures that inspire the most glorious, career-making designs — pieces that border on works of art — aren’t just possessors of mystique, but artists themselves. Throughout history, the special relationship between the same-but-different worlds of fashion and art has taken physical form in the connections between these designers and their talented muses. In such relationships, gender, physical appearance and even proximity are nonissues. All that matters is whether or not creative sparks fly.
Click through the slideshow above to enter the minds of five famed designers and the artist muses who were — and in some cases, still are — central to their careers.
Fashion Muses
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Riccardo Tisci and Marina Abramović
Perhaps the most quintessential designer-as-artist, artist-as-muse relationship of the fashion world is that of Givenchy Creative Director Riccardo Tisci and grandmother of performance art Marina Abramović. “When Riccardo and I met, I felt like we had the same tastes. I really love fashion, and he really loves art,” Abramović once told Harper’s Bazaar. “For me, having Riccardo is like finding your identity.” In 2011, the two best friends even bought a Soho townhouse together (complete with Japanese rock garden and lap pool) with the intention of cohabiting, but the arrangement fell through due to the designer’s jet-set lifestyle. Nevertheless, the creative geniuses continually feed off one another’s energy.
Image: Courtesy of Givenchy
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Riccardo Tisci and Marina Abramović
In 2012, Marina Abramović appeared in Givenchy’s Spring 2013 campaign, alongside Kate Moss, Mariacarla Boscono and other “people I love and who love me,” explained Riccardo Tisci. In the fall of 2015, Abramović masterminded the French fashion house’s surrealist art installation/Spring 2016 fashion presentation. In an open letter to Tisci that doubled as a show intro, the artist wrote, “This event that we are creating together is about forgiveness, inclusivity, new life, hope, and above all, love.” And then there’s their infamous, iconic (in more ways than one) Visionaire feature…
Image: @riccardotisci17
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Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola
The legendary, envelope-pushing Marc Jacobs and acclaimed filmmaker Sofia Coppola are the subjects of one of fashion’s great platonic love stories. Jacobs has played big spoon to Coppola’s little spoon for over two decades, as the designer relayed in his eponymous brand’s Fall 2015 campaign: “I met Sofia Coppola just after I showed my now ‘credited’ (by some!) GRUNGE collection for Perry Ellis in 1992. Sofia was one of the few who recognised something special and related to what I was doing at that time. She wanted to meet me, and when we did, it was love at first sight for me! Not only was I attracted to how she looked, her sense of style, I was drawn to her manner, her behavior, her life, her ambitions and creativity... She represented everything I am drawn to — talent, style, creativity, a unique ‘vision and voice'. She had then and has now an interest in fashion not as an art but rather part of the 'art of living'. Like good books, good music, beautiful interiors, art. She makes films that are creative and unique in their tone. While they do have a style they are not the ‘blockbuster Hollywood’ type movies that adhere to a formula or an accepted commercial cast. We became great friends immediately.”
Image: Courtesy of Juergen Teller
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Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola
She was the face of his first fragrance, he made the dress she wore to accept her screenwriting Oscar for Lost in Translation. Suffice it to say their collaborations, creative exchanges and seemingly endless memories of days and nights spent out and in could fill an encyclopedia, but their relationship is best summed up by these words from Sofia Coppola: “Marc feels like family to me. He's like a cousin. When we see each other, we start off where we left off. I'm still constantly learning from him.”
Image: Courtesy of Marc Jacobs
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Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali
Italian-born French designer Elsa Schiaparelli, contemporary of (and rival to) Coco Chanel, was the first to design a built-in bra for the bathing suit, bless her soul. The provocateur was also known for her quirky and imaginative designs, several of which she made in partnership with Surrealist artists like Jean Cocteau, Leonor Fini and, last but not least, Salvador Dali.
Image: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali
It was with Salvador Dali that Elsa Schiaparelli produced some of her best-known pieces — the Shoe Hat, the Tears Dress, the Skeleton Dress, the famously scandalous lobster-print dress Wallis Simpson wore in a 1937 issue of Vogue. “[Schiaparelli] and Dali adored each other because they were both daring and risk-takers,” said Schiaparelli biographer Meryle Secrest. The Spanish eccentric’s lasting influence on the couturière can be seen in pieces like her lamb cutlet hat and a day suit with pockets simulating a chest of drawers.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby
Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby are the R&R the fashion world so desperately needed. For the Belgian fashion designer and American painter and sculptor, the artist-muse relationship takes the form of a collaborative brotherhood. In 2005, Simons arranged a studio visit with Ruby and creative sparks instantly flew: “We had so much to say to each other,” Ruby told The New York Times. “In the 10 years I’ve been doing studio visits, I’ve felt that connection with someone maybe five times. I remember thinking, Wow, I’m really enjoying this!”
Image: Imaxtree
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Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby
Raf Simons, echoing Sterling Ruby’s sentiments, held, “In fashion, there are very few people I trust, even if we are friends. With Sterling I felt right away that I can talk about anything.” And so fashion began to imitate art. In 2008, Ruby designed the interior of Simons’ Tokyo store. In 2009, he bleached denim for one of Simons' capsule collections. In 2012, the artist created painterly textiles for Simons’ first Christian Dior haute couture show. In 2014, the duo presented a joint menswear collection at Paris Men’s Fashion Week under the (one-off) Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby label. Eleven years later, Simons sits at the helm of Calvin Klein and Ruby banks upward of a million per piece — and their bond still holds strong.
Image: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/GettyImages
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Yves Saint Laurent and Piet Mondrian
Yves Saint Laurent’s world was filled with prototypical muses, from bohemian designer Loulou de la Falaise to pop star Sylvie Vartan. Not all of his creative influences, however, shopped on the Left Bank. Of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, the avid art collector once said, “Mondrian is purity and one can go no further in purity in painting. This is a purity that joins with that of the Bauhaus. The masterpiece of the twentieth century is a Mondrian.”
Image: John Downing/Getty Images
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Yves Saint Laurent and Piet Mondrian
The Modernist artist was arguably the main inspiration behind Yves Saint Laurent’s iconic 1965 collection, which featured six wool jersey and silk shift dresses decorated with bold black lines and primary colored squares — an homage to Piet Mondrian’s work. The collection launched a fashion phenomenon, embodied Saint Laurent’s vision of the modern, liberated woman and marked one of the first occasions on which art walked the runway.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
