In honor of the 2012 London Olympics, the city continues to showcase its national pride with the launch of the new exhibit Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The show celebrates London’s role as a leading creative capital and also acknowledges the longstanding relationship between art and fashion.
Sponsored by the British Fashion Council/Bazaar Fashion Arts Foundation, the project was conceptualized in order to nurture interdisciplinary collaboration within the art world. The exhibition is also part of the London 2012 Festival, a 12-week celebration of epic proportions in honor of the Games.
For the exhibit, leading British fashion designers and visual artists were enlisted to create unique pieces inspired by the upcoming Olympics. Each designer/artist duo was given free reign to explore the dialogue between their respective disciplines. The results include works on a variety of mediums: sculpture, video, music and photography.
Each piece is a sophisticated, modern creation that seamlessly blends fashion aesthetic and contemporary art influences. Although creations fall under the definition of artwork rather than a more fashion-oriented identifier, every fashion designer’s respective signatures shine through. The Mary Katrantzou collaboration encompasses jaw-dropping, colorful prints; Nicholas Kirkwood‘s work includes remnants of shoe soles and heels dangling from a steel mechanism.
Britain Creates 2012 shows us that the meshing of two unique creative minds can form stunning artwork with succinct harmony. It is truly a joy to see familiar names combine and work together.
The exhibit opens to the public today and will run until July 29, two days after the London Olympics officially begin. Admission is free (plane tickets to London not included).
[via Victoria and Albert Museum]
The results include works on a variety of mediums: sculpture, video, music and photography.