So just what is it that has made art the new best friend for fashion to hang out with? Harriett Quick, Fashion Features Editor at Vogue explains: ¡°As far back as the 1930s when Elsa Schiaparelli created clothes inspired by her friends Salvador Dali and Picasso or the 1970s when Yves Saint Laurent created his famous Mondrian dresses, fashion designers have often taken inspiration from art.¡±

¡°Designers take inspiration from all sorts of things but at the moment there¡¯s a real movement to create very special pieces and to up the cultural anti. On a more social level, many of these designers like Azzedeine Allaia and Stella McCartney are enthusiastic and knowledgeable art collectors themselves, so it¡¯s easy for the two worlds to overlap.¡±

Julie Verhoeven, an artist who¡¯s sketches have in the past been featured on Marc Jacob¡¯s bags for Louis Vuitton, has worked in numerous ways across fashion and art, since starting her career in the late eighties as John Galliano¡¯s design assistant.

Although she admits the two worlds overlap, Verhoeven has no trouble defining the boundaries between her two passions. ¡°Art is complete self-indulgence. You have no consideration for anyone else.

"Fashion is different - you can¡¯t be completely ridiculous. If you did that with your clothes, the business would go under.¡±

So as we indulge ourselves in the new collections ¨C with no consideration for our bank balance - at least this season we¡¯ll have the perfect excuse. ¡°More Shoes? Oh no darling, it¡¯s art!¡±

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