#LOFFICIEL100: How Fashion Imitates Art
For a century, L’OFFICIEL has chronicled the birth of a new concept within its lush fashion focus: art as lifestyle.
Some may reject the notion that an object meant to be consumed could be considered art. However, there is no denying that a beautifully constructed garment created by the hands of a couturier can elicit the same response as that from a master work of art. In the space of the French fashion magazine, which holds the identity of la Parisienne so close to its heart, we often imagine fashion and art as one.
Founded in Paris in 1921, L’OFFICIEL emerged at a significant moment in fashion history. The artification of the designer and the influence of art movements on fashion were becoming increasingly prevalent through the work of couturiers like Paul Poiret and Elsa Schiaparelli.
Originally defining itself as an industry-specific publication, L’OFFICIEL increasingly began including features on artists and artistic movements. By the latter half of the 20th century, art had become an integral part of the magazine.
L’OFFICIEL captured the zeitgeist of many burgeoning artistic movements through its coverage of artists like Tsuguharu Foujita, Marc Chagall, and Jean Cocteau. However, as fashion and art evolved throughout the 20th century, the magazine’s connection to the art world became far more conceptual, moving beyond simple exhibition coverage and artist profiles to fashion editorials with an artful perspective.
Museums in particular became a popular backdrop in the 1950s and ‘60s, showing women in their elegant tailleurs from Nina Ricci and Maggy Rouff as they browsed Alberto Giacometti sculptures or paintings in Denise René’s gallery. The museum became a destination for the modern woman, and, in a certain way, she herself became considered a work of art within its walls.
Through the rise of Pop Art into the latter half of the 20th century, art’s connection to fashion took on new meaning. The clothing itself became the art, and the couturier and the stylist became the artists. L’OFFICIEL no longer only covered art, but created it by assembling the different fashions of the day into carefully crafted images. Fashion became less about the physical garments and more about the photos, the visuals, and the narrative that garments can communicate via the magazine page.
By the 1990s, fashion was the cultural moment. Boundary- pushing, luxurious, and sexy, all wrapped in a glossy package, fashion became the visual medium that best spoke to the masses. In essence, fashion became its own form of popular art, especially within the pages of L’OFFICIEL. Cheeky spreads compared contemporary looks to their artistic counterparts, with models twisting their bodies like sculptures or filling the page like paint on a canvas. The swirling patterns of their outfits echoed memorable popular artworks, and the construction of garments nodded to the talent and artistry required to make each piece.
In 2012, Éditions Jalou launched its own contemporary art magazine, L’OFFICIEL Art. In the inaugural issue, Editor-in-Chief Jérôme Sans made a clear reference to the incorporation of fashion into the art world, accompanied by a broad list of other forms of visual, performance, and culinary arts, all of which are meant to encompass this idea of living artistically.
For la Parisienne—the protagonist of a full century of L’OFFICIEL—fashion and art sit at the center of her lifestyle. After all, she owns the streets of Paris, the world capital of both disciplines. Their institutions touch every corner of her life, intertwining within her curated appearance, educated fashion choices, and fascination with culture. To be la Parisienne, one must be equally consumed by both fashion and art, and regard the former as being inseparable from the latter.
