As visual artists, fashion designers have often drawn inspiration from various artistic movements and phenomena. Although Karl Lagerfeld insisted on separating art from fashion, his work, as well as that of many other designers, contains numerous art historical references. One of the most well-known such examples is the Mondrian collection, designed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1965. The collection paid homage to several modern artists, including Serge Poliakoff and Kazimir Malevich. Since the most significant pieces in the collection were six cocktail dresses inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, the entire collection was named Mondrian. The A-line silhouette of the sleeveless dresses, made from wool jersey to hang straight without wrinkling, was characteristic of 1960s fashion. Today, Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dresses are preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The influential fashion designer Madeleine Vionnet was fascinated by Greek culture and art. А product of this fascination was the evening dress Petits chevaux or Vase grècque, created in 1921. The dress is recognizable for the motif of a frieze with rearing horses, which was taken from the clothes of one of the figures depicted on the Pronomos Vase from around 400 BCE. The Greek vase, now held by the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, portrays an antique theater crew with the famous musician Pronomos, in the presence of their patron god, Dionysus. Made of crêpe, a fine and delicate silk fabric, and adorned with metal thread embroidery, the dress became highly popular, so its numerous copies of varying quality have survived until today. An original piece is preserved in the Museum of Decorative Arts (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris.

As a contemporary of renowned Surrealists and Dadaists, Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with artists such as Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds an evening coat that Schiaparelli designed in 1937 based on Cocteau’s drawings. Since the double image was a preoccupation of Cocteau and other Surrealists, the decoration in the upper part of the coat’s back can be read both as a vase of roses and two profiles facing each other. The extravagant coat was made from silk jersey, embroidered with metal and silk thread, and decorated with appliquéd silk flowers.

Gianni Versace considered the artist Andy Warhol his kindred spirit. In tribute to Warhol and their shared fascination with pop culture, Versace dedicated his Spring/Summer 1991 collection to him. One of the most striking pieces in the collection was an evening dress adorned with prints of Warhol’s 1960s portraits of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. The collections of Dolce & Gabbana have also frequently been inspired by historical and artistic phenomena. Their Fall 2012 collection evoked the tradition of Sicilian Baroque, incorporating opulent bullion embroidery, lace, and velvet. On the other hand, their Fall 2013 collection Tailored Mosaic was based on motifs from Byzantine-style mosaics from the Monreale Cathedral in Sicily.

The renowned Serbian and Yugoslav fashion designer Aleksandar Joksimović also drew inspiration from art history. In March 1967, in a fashion show held at the Gallery of Frescoes in Belgrade, Joksimović presented his haute couture collection Simonida. Born in 1933 in Priština, into an old Serbian merchant family, he found inspiration for the collection in the Gračanica Monastery and the famous fresco from around 1320, depicting the medieval Serbian queen Simonida. The collection had a big impact on contemporary Yugoslav fashion and was frequently copied. Various artistic movements and figures influenced other Joksimović’s collections as well, such as Vitraž (1968), Milena Barilli (1975), and Mozaik (1975). Unfortunately, according to current knowledge, Joksimović’s runway pieces have not been preserved.