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The 20 most surrealist (and bizarre) fashion shows ever

Fashion ecartistic horrors they have always been the protagonists of an unstoppable dance, in which painters, sculptors and photographers of all ages orbit around the greatest stylists in history, exchanging inspirations, practices, visions of the future. But there is a movement, more than others, which cyclically returns for his own pas-de-deux with the fashion collections: the surrealism.

With his symbologies as powerful as they are mysterious in fact, it has been able to embody, like fashion, a unique charm. That, so rare, of the to be able to turn so much tothe more intimate of the neighbor, as for theuniversality of which this self is inevitably a part.

Every detail, deliberately and apparently out of context, raises uncomfortable questions to the observer: whether it is a mouth, an eye, a trompe-l’œil or of a reference to mythological iconography, perception is put to the test, both on an aesthetic and conceptual level. And here it is art and fashion see an even more blurred boundary between them, given by the real or posthumous crossover of the same, great names of surrealism with the fashion industry. An example of this are the countless contributions of Salvador Dali to the world of fashion, from the covers of Vogue at collaborations with Elsa Schiaparelliincluding the famous lobster dress worn by Wallis Simpson.

Wallis Simpson with the lobster dress by Dalì and Schiaparelli. Photo: Vogue, 1937

Although the Catalan master was later mentioned – and continues to be – on the catwalk, he is by no means the only surrealist whose motifs have skilfully mixed with clothing: we find Man Ray, from whose photographs they took inspiration, among others, Prada for the Spring / Summer 2000 collection – with the famous mouth-shaped prints repeated on minimalist skirts and tops – or again Jean-Charles de Castelbajac for the Fall / Winter 2011 fashion showin which even the iconic photograph of Violin by Ingresfrom 1924.

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Autumn / Winter 2011-12

These and many others i crossover between fashion and surrealism in recent decades: in the gallery below, a selection of the most surrealist fashion shows of all time.

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:

– The small, big fashion stories: that time when Salvador Dalì made lobster a fashion icon

– Emma Corrin’s balloons parade

– Surrealism beyond time and borders: the great exhibition at the Tate Modern in London

Source: Vanity Fair

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