The Christmas Story Between Art and Fashion

For centuries painters and sculptors tried to create religious artworks that spoke to different emotional needs. In a way the fashion industry did the same, though, as seen in previous posts, it took inspiration from various religious aspects including ecclesiastical garments, the attire of sacred statues and the looks and colours of certain paintings, doing so not to satisfy an emotional need, but for merely commercial purposes.

Scenes such as the birth of Jesus and the adoration of the Magi remain among the most popular stories painted by numerous artists who reinterpreted them according to their style and taste, or following their very personal vision.

Many Medieval and Renaissance artists painted for examples their own versions of the annunciation with the archangel Gabriel telling Mary she will give birth to the son of God. There are different versions and visions of this story, among the most famous ones there are Leonardo Da Vinci and Fra Angelico's.

Annunciation stories became quite popular aso in fashion in the last few years and we have seen for example casual version of this sacred vision replicated on the "Cathedral" mini-dress and leggings (2012) by Black Milk clothing.

There was an indirect reference to the rainbow coloured wings of Gabriel in Jan van Eyck's "The Annunciation" (c. 1434/1436) in Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2008 "La Dame Bleu" collection. The latter moved from a bird theme inspired by the late Isabella Blow, a topic that was also employed to reference the Bird of Paradise. The feathered looks in this collection turned McQueen's models into divine ontological creatures, hinting at angels.

McQueen seemed to return to this painting and to the rich garment donned by Gabriel when he created some of the embroidered gold and red designs in his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. Yet the designer also went back to The Annunciation theme by printing this scene from Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Triptych on one of his evening gowns. Can you think about other examples of The Annunciation scene in fashion?