ABSTRACT
From Rei Kawakubo and Hussein Chalayan, to Nicolas Ghesquière and Virgil Abloh, countless fashion designers claim an influence from architecture in their work. However, the dialogue between these two disciplines is also present in the use of exceptional architectural features in fashion shows, in the choice of setting for the presentation of Cruise collections, and in the retail collaborations between brands and ‘starchitects.’ From the cross-disciplinary perspective of architecture theories and fashion studies, this paper looks at how the language of architecture is used to construct the narrative of fashion. The text shows how these links are not just a logical association based on the semantic and structural proximity of the disciplines, but an appropriation of architectural discourse as a source of added cultural value. This proximity between fashion and architecture has been turned into a communication tool to legitimate the artistic dimension sought by fashion as a differentiating factor.
