The art world has long served as inspiration for fashion designers, its influence resulting in some of the most celebrated style moments in fashion history, whether it was the close friendship between Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí in the 1930s, or Yves Saint Laurent’s Piet Mondrian shift dresses of 1965. Over the years, the connection between fashion and art has only grown stronger – and now designers and fashion houses are boldly embracing more formalised patronage roles. Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Maison Margiela regularly commission projects that span exhibitions, installations and broader cultural programming, resulting in fashion and art being even more closely intertwined.
One of the most prolific champions of women artists in particular is Miuccia Prada. For more than 15 years she has commissioned leading female filmmakers to create short films through her Miu Miu Women’s Tales platform, giving them carte blanche to imagine a narrative that celebrates modern womanhood today. Past collaborators include Mona Fastvold, Dakota Fanning and Janicza Bravo and, most recently, Claire Denis, who debuted her short film Avec Kim at the Venice Film Festival in September.
This October, Miu Miu is set to return to Art Basel, this time enlisting French filmmaker Alice Diop as a collaborator (she previously worked with the house on one of its Miu Miu Women’s Tales films in 2025). The exhibit, titled Gesture of Consolation, is a multi- disciplinary work fusing film, sculpture, performance, literature and sound, looking to reframe the objectifying, often fetishising, narrative the art industry has historically imposed on Black women.
‘I decided to begin with everything that inhabits me, everything that sets me in motion and gets me working – intimately, intellectually, cinematically,’ says Diop. ‘This opportunity allowed me to explore a new language that expands my whole perspective as a filmmaker. A chance to keep working on the questions that run through my whole body of work as a filmmaker, and to unfold them in new ways.’
For many artists, tie-ups with fashion houses can offer them fresh opportunities to explore new creative territory. For Diop, for example, Miu Miu’s patronage allowed her to expand her practice beyond filmmaking, expanding her perspective as an artist. ‘I see it as a space for creative exchange and experimentation,’ she explains. ‘I’m interested in the way boundaries between disciplines are becoming increasingly fluid. This project allowed me to bring together cinema, installation, sculpture, performance, music and literature within a single experience.’
Art Basel has been a key launch pad for Miu Miu’s art projects in the past. In June, the house staged a major exhibition in Shanghai, which drew 11,500 visitors over its limited weekend run.
The project first debuted at Art Basel Paris in 2024 and then travelled to New York last year before landing in Shanghai, expanded and redesigned especially for its third outing. Masterminded by the Polish interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga, who Mrs Prada invited to collaborate on the project along- side Spanish curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, the Tales & Tellers exhibition drew on the characters from the 31 Miu Miu Women’s Tales films, casting live actors to play the roles in a whole new context – each acting as a window into the original film in the Tales series their character came from. ‘You sometimes get confused with who is the performer and who is the audience,’ says Macuga.
‘We totally embrace the audience being part of it.’ Theatre and opera director Fabio Cherstich, who also supported on the Shanghai exhibition, notes how, ultimately, activations like these help to open up both fashion and art to a broader following.
‘It’s part of the history of the brand… sharing this passion for art, culture, music to an audience,’ he says. ‘The audience is much wider than the people that go to the shop, but they can identify on this idea of culture, on this idea of art, or this idea of entertainment.’
Creative endeavours
Discover more of our favourite fashion and art tie-ups that have been making waves this year…
- Calvin Klein x Walter De Maria – Floor sculptures by Walter De Maria lined the catwalk at Calvin Klein’s SS27 show.
- Hermès x Sarah Martinon – The artist provided sketches for the Hermès website, which were then animated.
- Louis Vuitton x Keith Haring – For cruise 2027, Nicolas Ghesquière delivered a vibrant Keith Haring collaboration.
- Issy Miyake x Tate Modern – Homme Plissé Issey Miyake’s capsule for the museum was inspired by Henri Matisse’s The Snail.
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