Reimagining the Runway: Transforming Fashion Shows into Immersive Art Installations
What if the catwalk was reimagined as a canvas for visual artists to showcase their creative universes?
Last November, Lightroom Gallery in London unveiled "VOGUE: Inventing the Runway," a remarkable exhibition created in collaboration with the archives of the iconic fashion magazine. This showcase revisits some of the most groundbreaking runway moments of recent decades, illustrating how these events transcended the traditional catwalk to become immersive spectacles that redefined the boundaries between art and fashion.
Among the highlights, the exhibition features Alexander McQueen’s visionary Spring/Summer 1999 collection, which culminated in the unforgettable scene of Shalom Harlow spinning in a white tulle dress, dramatically spray-painted by robotic arms—a performance that explored the interplay between humanity and technology. Hussein Chalayan’s Autumn/Winter 2000-2001 show also takes center stage, where an ordinary living room was ingeniously transformed: chairs morphed into suitcases, and a table became a skirt, offering a poignant reflection on migration, displacement, and the fragility of belonging.
Another highlight is Iris van Herpen’s Hypnosis (2019), inspired by the intricate patterns of natural ecosystems and created in collaboration with artist Anthony Howe. This show combined engineering and craftsmanship to produce a hypnotic, kinetic installation that blurred the lines between the organic and the mechanical, creating a mesmerizing interplay of motion and design.
Each piece in the London’s exhibition underscores how the runway can function as a medium for storytelling, critical reflection, and artistic innovation. Indeed, in recent years, the boundaries between fashion and art have increasingly blurred, with fashion brands collaborating more frequently with visual artists to transform their runway shows into immersive, artistic environments. This approach reimagines the catwalk as a true art installation, where the fashion show becomes a semantic element within a broader artistic discourse. Rather than simply showcasing new collections, the runway becomes an integral part of the visual artist's narrative, adding layers of meaning that transcend the unveiling of garments.
In this context, the fashion show evolves into a platform to explore complex themes and engaging with societal questions. It challenges the audience to think critically about identity, culture, and the rapidly changing world we inhabit. By intertwining art and fashion, these collaborations transform the catwalk into a space where aesthetic innovation meets intellectual and emotional engagement. The experience invites us to reconsider not only what we wear but also our relationship with transformation, consumerism, and the shifting dynamics of contemporary society.
One striking example is Dior’s collaboration with feminist artist Elena Bellantoni. For Dior's Spring/Summer 2024 Ready-to-Wear collection, Bellantoni’s installation, NOT HER, featured over 300 images of sexist advertisements spanning from the 1940s to the present, displayed on seven-meter-high LED screens. This powerful visual critique confronted stereotypes and illuminated issues surrounding language, translation, migration, and power dynamics. The installation seamlessly aligned with creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri's exploration of femininity and feminism. Bellantoni’s thought-provoking work, including a series of self-portraits, critically examined the stereotypes surrounding women in advertising and public communication. These striking visuals complemented Dior’s collection, weaving a dialogue between the garments and the broader narratives of identity, feminism, and power relations.
Alessandro Michele, the visionary creative director of Maison Valentino, embraced an interdisciplinary approach for the Spring/Summer 2025 collection. In collaboration with Italian artist Alfredo Pirri, Michele transformed the runway into a poetic extension of Pirri’s iconic installation, Passi. This masterpiece, composed of shattered mirrors and reflective surfaces, set the stage for an ethereal experience. Models moved through fragmented reflections, their appearances multiplied and distorted, creating a mesmerizing interplay between fashion and art. More than a visual spectacle, the installation invited deeper contemplation on the construction of illusionary worlds through ephemeral imagery, echoing the fragility of both the glittering fashion system and life itself.
This trend is not confined to Europe. In South Asia, renowned artist Rashid Rana brought his signature aesthetic to the Winter 2024 Lahore Fashion Week. Rana’s artistic practice is celebrated for juxtaposing contrasting imagery, often layering micro-images to form larger, seemingly cohesive visuals. His work encourages viewers to interrogate the surface, uncovering unsettling truths about violence, abuse of power, and the hypocrisies of global consumerism. On the runway, Rana’s contributions went far beyond aesthetics, transforming the fashion show into a space for reflection and critique of the fast fashion industry. Through his signature pixelated style, Rana created large-scale installations and dynamic visuals that blurred the boundaries between the digital and physical realms. His work dissected the violent essence of consumerism that fuels the global fashion market, urging the audience to confront the darker truths underlying the glamour.
These collaborations highlight how fashion and art, when intertwined, can transcend their individual domains to create powerful, multilayered experiences. By reimagining the catwalk as a canvas, designers and artists craft narratives that are not only visually stunning but also deeply thought-provoking, bridging the gap between two dynamic worlds. The catwalk thus becomes more than a showcase for the latest trends; it emerges as a site for dialogue, where art and fashion converge to reflect and interrogate the cultural, social, and political currents shaping our world. These immersive installations invite us to look beyond the superficial and engage with the profound narratives woven into the fabric of both art and life.
