Is fashion art? That perennial debate is at the heart of this year’s Met Gala.
For Marine Serre, whose upcycled tapestry coat was featured in the “Louvre Couture” exhibition in Paris last year, you might say the matter is settled.
She reunited with the museum for a collaboration on her fall collection, which includes five one-of-a-kind couture pieces in addition to a capsule line launching in April, made with unsold T-shirts from the Louvre gift store.
Serre celebrated the museum’s star attraction, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” with a dress made from almost 3,000 puzzle pieces that were sewn together, fitted onto a reinforced base and varnished — a process requiring 420 hours of work.
The designer has skipped the runway for the last two seasons, saying she wants to focus on the slow craft of making clothes.
“My goal this year is to frame fashion and clothing as an art form, so that people stop looking at it like something that flies past. I wanted to put the clothes into context,” she said in a preview at her Paris headquarters.
Her look book, photographed by Arash Khaksari, invited viewers to step into a painting — a clever take on the AI videos of animated masterpieces that are all over social media. Think puff-sleeved poet blouses, bustle gowns and portrait necklines, but done with a sportswear twist.
Almost every look was spliced with technical fabrics: a black jersey bodice on a crisp white shirt, a Neoprene corset belt on a T-shirt top and transparent mesh panels on graphic trompe-l’oeil gowns with faux fur trim.
Serre’s take on a pannier skirt slipped on like a second skin. She attached black scuba tops to skirts assembled from upcycled white shirts, T-shirts or colorful silk scarves, and inflated with padding at the hips.
The designer showed off her range with precision pieces like a tailored black jacket with a Renaissance neckline, and technical feats like a column dress composed of 850 makeup brushes.
“It’s about taking things with little intrinsic value and showing how the time and human effort invested in each piece ultimately transforms it into a couture creation,” she said.
Serre planned to attend the Louvre’s annual fundraising gala on Tuesday with a couple of guests dressed in her designs. When she saw the Met Gala theme, she did a double take: great minds think alike.
