The classic conversation when meeting a designer at their studio or backstage always starts with the question: “What was your inspiration?” While lately designers have eschewed proclamations such as “I was thinking about my woman vacationing in the south of France,” in favor of talking about building a wardrobe, lots of interesting references came up this season.
Some fashion inspiration manifests directly. For Sarah Burton’s last collection at Alexander McQueen, the designer looked to the Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, filling McQueen’s amorphous runway with her sculptures as well as utilizing Abakanowicz’s shapes and visual signatures in her unabashedly sensual designs; while at Boss, designer Marco Falcioni explained that the general office-appropriate vibe of the collection came via a viewing of the supremely weird 1999 movie Being John Malkovich. For other designers, like Ambush’s Yoon Ahn, it was more about the “attitude, angst, and rebellious spirit” of ’90s musicians like Fiona Apple and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, but the clothes themselves did not reflect any specific style quirks of either artist.
Read through for an A to Z guide to all the movies, books, artists, and even art movements that served as fashion inspiration this season.
Agostino Brunias. 18th century Italian painter who was active in the West Indies and was a reported favorite of Toussaint Louverture, at Ferragamo.
Arte Povera. Italian art movement from the 1960s that emphasized the use of everyday materials, at Ferragamo.
A Tragedy of Fashion**. **The first ballet presented by the Rambert Dance Company in 1926 about a “doomed fashion designer who ends up impaling himself on his own cutting scissors,” at Patrick McDowell.
Augusta Savage. American sculptor and the only Black artist commissioned to create artwork for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, at Bibhu Mohapatra.
Auguste Rodin. 19th-century French sculptor considered to be one of the fathers of modern sculpture, at Sacai.
Being John Malkovich. 1999 film written by Charlie Kaufmann and directed by Spike Jonze, starring John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, at Boss.
Berthe Morisot. One of the few female Impressionist painters, at Eudon Choi.
Björk. Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, and music icon, at Rick Owens.
Boom! 1968 film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on the Tennessee Williams play The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, at Antonio Marras.
Cecilia Lisbon. One of the doomed Lisbon sisters in The Virgin Suicides, a 1993 novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides that was later adapted into a film of the same name by Sofia Coppola, at Sandy Liang.
Charles and Marie-Laure Noailles. Art patrons who ran with the Surrealists and commissioned the French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens to build their early modernist Villa Noailles in Hyères in 1923, at Chanel.
Chloë Sevigny. Actor, director, and It girl, at Christopher Esber.
Constantin Brâncuși. Romanian artist widely considered to be one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, at Givenchy.
Crash. 1996 film by David Cronenberg that explores how a group of people develop an interest in the world of car crash sexual fetish, at Mowalola
Cy Twombly. American Abstract Expressionist painter, at Marina Moscone.
Do Ho Suh. Korean multimedia artist known for his fabric sculptures, at We11done.
Donohue’s Steakhouse. An old-fashioned steakhouse in New York City’s Upper East Side neighborhood, at Coach.
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” Bob Dylan song covered by Joan Baez, at Talia Byre.
Felice (Lizzi) Rix-Ueno. An Austrian designer known for her textile, wallpaper, and crafts designs who was part of the Wiener Werkstätte, at Akris.
Fiona Apple. American singer-songwriter, at Ambush.
Futurama. Animated television show created by The Simpson’s Matt Groening that takes place in the future, at GCDS.
Georgia O’Keeffe. American painter known for her paintings of natural forms and desert landscapes, at Co.
Grace Jones. Jamaican American singer, performer, model, and icon, at Salon 1884.
Great Barrier Reef. The world’s largest coral reef, off the coast of Australia, at Anna Sui.
Hard to Be a God. 1989 film directed by Peter Fleischmann based on the 1964 science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsly, at Ashley Williams.
Hotel Du Nord. 1938 French drama film directed by Marcel Carné, at Atlein.
Impressionism. Late 19th-century art movement characterized by its obvious brushstrokes and its emphasis on capturing movement and the passage of time, at Jonathan Cohen.
Joan Jonas. American performance and video artist who emerged into the art scene in the 1960s and 1970s, at Rachel Comey.
Kate Moss at Glastonbury. Iconic early aughts fashion moment involving the British super model, a pair of wellies, and mud, at R13.
Katerina Jebb. British photographer and filmmaker, at Acne Studios.
Kim Gordon. Artist and bass player for the influential experimental rock band Sonic Youth, at Ambush.
Kwaidan. 1964 Japanese horror movie directed by Masaki Kobayash, at Puppets and Puppets.
Laura Facey. Jamaican contemporary sculptor, at Diotima.
Liam Lee. American contemporary designer and finalist for the Loewe Craft Prize, at Marina Moscone.
Living Well is the Best Revenge. 1971 book by Calvin Tomkins, at Alejandra Alonso Rojas.
Lost Highway. 1997 psychological thriller from director David Lynch, at 16Arlington.
Lynda Carter. American actress known for her portrayal of Wonder Woman for the TV show of the same name that ran in the 1970s, at Sergio Hudson.
Magdalena Abakanowicz. Polish sculptor known for her radical pieces made from woven materials, at Alexander McQueen.
Mahmoud Darwish. Palestinian poet and writer, at Renaissance Renaissance.
Mega Millions. Lottery game of chance, at LaPointe.
Monster Jam. Event where people watch massive trucks crush things and compete in a wide variety of competitions, at Masha Popova.
Monte Verità. Utopian community formed in Switzerland at the turn of the 20th century that attracted famous intellectuals and artists like Carl Jung, Herman Hesse, Rudolf Steiner, and Paul Klee, at Bally.
Ocean Vuong. Vietnamese American poet and writer, at Helmut Lang.
Orlando: A Biography. A novel by Virginia Woolf published in 1928 and later adapted into a film starring Tilda Swinton, at Temperley London.
Ossip Zadkine. French artist born in the former Russian Empire, known for his sculptures, paintings, and lithographs in the Cubist style, at Givenchy.
Pete Burns. Glamorous vocalist for 1980s band Dead or Alive, at Christian Cowan.
Pina Bausch. German choreographer and dancer named director of the influential Tanztheater Wuppertal in the 1970s (later renamed the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch), at Nehera.
Saartje Baartmann. South African woman who was displayed throughout Europe in the early 1800s because of her unique body features, at Thebe Magugu.
She’s Out of Control. 1989 comedy starring Who’s the Boss star Tony Danza, at Interior.
Simone Leigh. American sculptor and visual artist who represented the United States in the 2022 Venice Biennale, at Bibhu Mohapatra.
“Socorro.” Song by Dominican artist Jey One, at Luar.
Sophia Al-Maria. Qatari American artist who coined the term “Gulf Futurism,” regarding the aesthetics and popular culture in the Persian Gulf, at Miu Miu.
Suspiria. 1977 horror film directed by Dario Argento, at Cormio.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Book by Thomas Hardy published in 1892 which challenged Victorian notions of femininity and sexuality, at Yuhan Wang.
“The Last of Us.” 2023 HBO show based on a video game of the same name, at Jason Wu.
The Seventh Seal. 1957 film directed by Ingmar Bergman in which a knight returning from the Crusades encounters Death and challenges it to a game of chess, at Ashley Williams.
To Be Nobody Else. 1968 book by photographer John Pearson, at Willie Norris for Outlier.
Wings of Desire. Wim Wenders’s 1987 film about angels on the lookout for humans in distress, at Undercover.
