The “Is Fashion Art?” debate is always rife: often, as soon as a designer claims to have been influenced by a particular art movement or artist in their latest collection, the dispute over what’s art and what’s not reopens. But art met fashion a long time ago. The first chroniclers of fashion were actually painters: Titian’s "La Bella" (1536) portrays a young woman wearing a sumptuous dress - probably the most beautiful of the Renaissance - its white lace framing her bosom, the blue velvet of the bodice embroidered with golden motifs contrasting with the earthy palette of the voluminous sleeves.
The Sorelle Fontana fashion house, established in the early ‘40s in Rome by sisters Zoe, Micol and Giovanna, became famous in the ‘50s for creating glamorous evening gowns for celebrities and stars such as Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn and princess Soraya. One of the main inspirations behind the work of the Fontana sisters was actually art. Their 1953 collection, for example, relied heavily on the Italian Renaissance with dresses that featured high rounded collars, bell sleeves, heavy embroidery and accessories, such as hats, directly copied from Renaissance paintings.
During the ‘50s the Fontana sisters organised a series of events and prizes to connect art and fashion. In 1959, they launched a competition that blended art and fashion in fabric printing. Many Italian painters - among them Domenico Purificato, Mimmo Rotella, Renzo Vespignani, Giovanni Omiccioli, Antonio Vangelli and Nuvolo - took part in it. The winning entries were printed on silk by top quality silkmakers in the northern city of Como and turned into dresses for the young and dynamic “Miss Fontana” line. 
Most of the dresses were sleeveless or strapless with bubble skirts, their traditional ‘50s silhouette contrasting with the abstract patterns and bold colours of the paintings printed on their material. One dress was made using fabric printed by Mocchetti and based on Eliano Fantuzzi’s paintings; another one was printed by Bedetti and Bedraglio and based on Nuvolo’s paintings. Each work of art was exhibited in the Fontana atelier in Rome and a model wearing a dress that reproduced the work of art posed next to it. 
I was recently looking at some images from Stella Cadente’s Spring/Summer 08 collection and the Sorelle Fontana's experiments with art came to my mind. Stella Cadente’s collection was presented last October at the Musée de l’Orangerie with models posing in the oval rooms where Claude Monet’s “Nymphéas”, or waterlily series, is permanently installed. 
The models wearing Stella Cadente's romantic dresses reminded me of the Fontana sisters' models posing in the ‘50s next to the paintings that had inspired the dress they were wearing. Besides, Stella Cadente's collection seems to evoke Monet’s colour palette. Stanislassia Klein, the designer behind this French label, envisions fashion as romance, and her sensual and feminine creations, in silk or chiffon, often feature soft colours, sequins and feathers.
Some of the pale pink creations seem to be a sexier and dreamier version of the dress worn by the woman in Monet's "Woman Reading" or "Springtime" (1872), while Klein's pale blues have at times the opalescent quality
of Monet’s toned lavender blues and greens.
The more I look at the pictures of Klein's creations,
the more I think about the colours of Monet’s dreamy painting “The
Japanese Footbridge” (1899) with its shimmering mass of colour strokes and its pale pink blossoms on turquoise green leaves.
Other creations from the
same collection are more colourful, with multi-coloured tulle
underskirts with, here and there, splashes of black or black stars
printed on ample skirts (“stella cadente” means “shooting star” in
Italian).
Passionate art lovers stop, contemplate, meditate and dream in front of masterpieces such as Monet’s “Nymphéas”. I guess there’s nothing wrong in doing the same in front of a beautiful dress.
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