Usually the best fashion moments are the ones we never saw coming. High on that list for Spring ’17 were, without a doubt, the Yves Klein–blue dresses at Céline. We felt an immediate, emotional response, perhaps because they weren’t quite like anything we’d seen on a runway before. Phoebe Philo is a designer who rarely cites traceable, concrete references, but it turns out she was inspired by the renowned French painter. For his “Anthropometry” series, the artist painted nude models in his signature cobalt shade, then had them lay down on giant sheets of paper to stamp imprints of their bodies. Philo’s dresses looked like those imprints had come to life in the most unexpected, eye-catching way.
Other designers were feeling arty this season, too. Hillier Bartley’s coats and bags featured scribbled eyeballs, and Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli collaborated with Zandra Rhodes on Hieronymus Bosch–influenced religious illustrations. Which is all to say that being an art nerd has never been cooler.
