Forget New York Fashion Week and the latest edition of Vogue. You'll find the dreamiest and most indulgent fashion inspirations in the archives of art history, immortalized through masterful applications of paint. An Instagram account by the name of Art Garments zooms in on art's most bombastic fashion moments, sharing them with their audience of over 32,000 followers.
The online sartorial sanctuary is run by two anonymous individuals based in New York. Once or twice a day, followers' feeds are greeted with a painted portrait, zooming in on a particular brooch, ruffle or textured fabric to fully embrace the uncanny ability of paint to pose as wearable material. Today's style bloggers have nothing on these art historical sitters' ability to rock a bejeweled codpiece.
"I sometimes work around a theme that I find interesting or surprising, such as gloves or flowers or stripes," the mind behind Art Garments explained to AnOther. "Other times, it is truly organic and guided purely by aesthetics and curiosity about how certain details are rendered or by how a particular garment is worn. I’m inspired by the high drama of the ruff, the jabot, engageantes (ruffled cuffs); I’m endlessly fascinated by the photographic quality of Dutch Golden Age paintings, and the flounces and fripperies of Rococo and Baroque fashion."
Art Garments wonderfully uses the fluidity and accessibility of the Internet to challenge the ways in which museums can feel cold, removed and, literally, untouchable. As she explained to AnOther: "My instinct at museums is always to touch my nose to the canvas to study brushstrokes or the combination of colors to achieve a particular effect, but of course, there are security guards and ropes and alarms."
Cheers to Art Garments, blurring the boundary between fashion and art while making art accessible and relevant with the powers of the web. This is the time when you click "Follow."
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