ART & FASHION & LIFESTYLE

The ART & MODE auction catalog reads like a free-flowing inventory of designers and artists. Some illustrious names naturally catch the eye; others, less well-known or sometimes forgotten, deserve to be (re)discovered.

Photographs by Brassaï, Karl Lagerfeld, Françoise Huguier, Jean-Luc Huré, François Kollar, and Marina Faust… So many perspectives that have captured fashion, its key figures, its behind-the-scenes moments, and its era. Sometimes a document, sometimes a work of art in its own right, photography reveals its myths, excesses, revolutions, and vulnerabilities.

Drawings and illustrations by Jean Dessès, Jacques Fath, Marc Bohan, Callot Sœurs, Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, Jacques Heim, Lanvin, Maggy Rouff, Philippe Venet, Erik Mortensen for Pierre Balmain, and Sonia Rykiel: all traces of the creative process, when fashion is still just a line, a color, or an intuition. Patrice Cauchetier’s watercolors for stage costumes and opera sets continue this dialogue between fashion, theater, and the performing arts.

From René Gruau to Christian Astuguevieille, from Jean Widmer to the collage artists Kat Gallicere and Paolo Giardi, the image breaks free from clothing to become a language in its own right. A realm where graphic design, art, and visual culture converge, but also where fashion’s fantasies, references, and transformations come together.

Fashion documentation and ephemera: invitation cards from Maison Martin Margiela, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Dries Van Noten; swatch books; press clippings; correspondence; and, of course, the legendary magazine FMR. These are all traces—sometimes fragile, often ephemeral—that offer an intimate look at fashion through its creation, dissemination, and legacy.

The sale also sheds light on the creative process itself through several rare pieces. A prototype John Galliano jacket made of butter cloth and still bearing the atelier’s handwritten annotations, the snap-front vest that Agnès Troublé designed for Elie Jacobson in the early 1970s, which later inspired one of her most iconic designs: the snap-front cardigan. Also included is the mobile designed by Christian Boltanski with Corinne Cobson in the 1980s in the pool at the Lutétia in Paris, accompanied by its contact sheet that traces its creation. These are all privileged testimonies to the birth of works of art, garments, and ideas.

And then there are Alina Alamorean’s majestic sculptural jewels—hybrid works designed to complement the body as much as to stand on their own as sculptures.

Hermès, Dior, and Chanel continue this dialogue between creativity and everyday life through a selection of tableware and objects that can add a touch of magic to even the most ordinary moments.

After all, who decides what belongs to Art or Fashion? Perhaps simply those who view, collect, and appreciate these archives—those who imbue them with a history and a memory, and who choose to preserve them, pass them on, and keep their stories alive.