When Architecture Inspires Fashion

As Zaha Hadid succinctly puts it, Architecture is the way a person moves through space. Fashion is all about the way in which the object is placed upon the person." Metaphors, analogies, references, and shared imaginaries — similarities between garments and actual structures are numerous. "Clothes are the first intermediaries between the body and the environment, tasked with preserving its greatest intimacy. They are artefacts unlike any other. They're also linked quite closely with architecture, and specifically to that of the home," writes Estelle Thibault, the architect and historian who authored the fascinating study La Confection des édificies: analogies textiles en architecture aux XIXe et XXe siècles ("The confection of the edifice: textile analogies in the architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries.")  Fashion and architecture act as filters between people and the spaces in which they live. Looking more closely at architecture literature, "we can appreciate the heterogenous character of references to the world of fabric and the garment. Above and beyond the literal use of supple materials, dense canvases, and other membranes, a vast field of experimentation is formed in which flexible and interlaced figures are integrated into the conception of buildings. Frameworks, facades, and awnings begin to be adorned with patterns of knits, braids, lace, and other embellishments," continues Thibault. At the same time, the lexical field of architecture is itself relevant to the world of fashion, featuring sculpted silhouettes, cocoon-pieces, organic styles, monumental creations, textured surfaces, and more.

An Architectural Fashion

For many fashion designers, their discipline is inseparable from architecture. Hussein Chalayan affirms that, "For me, fashion is architecture that touches the body." Before him, Coco Chanel herself evoked a similar impression: "Fashion is architecture: it's a question of proportions." Beyond the analogies, architecture is, for some, a real passion: such is the case for André Courrèges, a graduate of the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, also known as the "Le Corbusier of Couture."

Many couture creators indeed hold degrees in architecture, like Thierry Mugler's Manfred, as well as Mugler's new artistic director Casey Cadwallader, along with Virgil Abloh and Glenn Martens. The latter studied interior architecture in Bruges before attending the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts d'Anvers. In fashion, optical illusions are multiplying, with some pieces giving us double or even triple vision. Everything is reversed, deconstructed, interwoven, deformed. The construction and assemblage of the garment is reinvented with each new collection. Demna Gvasalia, for his part, focuses on structure and silhouette, with sharp tailoring, monumental shoulders, sculpted waists, and robes blown-up with crinoline... an echo of Cristobal Balenciaga, qualified as the "architect of the body and its outfit."

For Claude Parent, the likeness between the architect and the designer is undeniable: "Architects and tailor-seamstresses are comparable, linked between scale and volume." In 2016, the Alaïa gallery dedicated an exhibition to the architect and former fashion illustrator, entitled "Claude Parent: Dessiner la mode" ("Claude Parent: Drawing Fashion.") There, visitors could admire his China ink drawings inspired by Alaïa's creations, the illustrations crossed with a trace of silver revealing the garment's oblique movement and thus reflecting his notion of the "oblique function," developed following the work of philosopher Paul Virilio. Such was his way of translating architectural language into the construction of apparel. Surpassing this, architecture is more largely an integral part of the visual identity of fashion houses. Luxury brands regularly call on laureates of prestigious architecture prizes to imagine their flagship boutiques.

From Shield to Self-Expression

In architecture as in fashion, anthropology is central. Apparel, like buildings, constitutes an interface between the individual and the public space, transforming the environments that surround us. In French, habit (garment), habitacle (interior), habiller (to dress), habiter (to live), are all strikingly similar — "these words coexist, and the vocabulary refers to analogous things. Dressing, like inhabiting, is an expression of an anthropological fundamental — the act of covering the body. We cover ourselves twice over, with attire and with our homes, two layers that are thus juxtaposed. The protective function of these coverings becomes clear. Protection from the cold, the sun, and a hostile environment, but also from the other's gaze. The home is thus the place of the self, where privacy is possible, the only place where we can not be seen," writes anthropologist Kristen Blache-Comte, elaborating that "along with the garment and the shelter's protective functions, we also note their expressive dimension: the object here surpasses basic need. We experiment with body and space, rendering them sensorial."

Clothing, like our homes, is a kind of sanctuary that also serves to communicate something about our identity. Researcher Alina Payne thus demonstrated continuities between apparel, which Ernst Kapp characterized as a kind of wearable home, and private architectures that functions as an extension of the body. On the fashion side, at Moncler, for example, Craig Green offers pieces that evoke tents or sleeping bags, almost comparable to hermit crab shells — they're cocoons in the purest sense of the word, homes that accompany their wearers. Rick Owens also unveiled sleeping-bag-coats, while John Galliano at Maison Margiela offered survival-cover parkas. Demna Gvasalia imagined cozy dress-coats and integrated hood-scarves in ink-black velvet.

In a totally different register, Ester Manas produces single-size pieces imagined to adapt to all body types. We think of the garment like a space of comfort and security, so that women feel at ease regardless of their size. Our shield-like creations highlight curves and even reinforce them. The modularity of clothing is important for us: it's supposed to act like an architectural extension," explains Balthazar Delepierre, co-founder of the brand.

"The cocoon-garment speaks to a feeling of vulnerability — the vulnerability of the individual and that of our societies. It's the sign of an era of uncertainty, characteristic of all eras, but also and above all, of a sentiment of fear in today's world. The cocoon-garment is a response to this fear, lending attire a protective power as grand and solid as that of the home itself. In fashion we see pieces clamming up, hardening, becoming impenetrable; they hide, become hides, frameworks, much like architecture. It's a style that points to a return to the self, which no longer wants to show its envelope: it's a style that prefers the reassurance of the concealed, the bunker's defense from the gaze," states Kristell Blache-Comte.

Likewise, Boramy Viguier offers protective silhouettes: masked mouths, hoodies drawn close to the head, quilted tops, multiple layers, and more. "I like to tell myself that clothes also act as protection. And that my style is a kind of response to the disenchantment of the world, that it allows us to return to the sacred aspects of things. Our globalized, digitized environment, with the star as this unsurpassable horizon, tends to reduce that aspect of the product,"  concludes the creator.