What Is The Connection Between Fashion And Architecture?

The link between fashion and architecture has been prevalent since the origin of human need for clothing and shelter. Originally having minimal resources led to an overlap of what is worn and what is lived in, for example having to use animal skin and fur for both shelter and clothing.

Creative industries such as fashion and architecture ultimately are a way to provide solutions to contemporary problems and therefore change with the times. Although now simultaneously acting as an art form, their initial functions remain unchanged. The two practices coincide with each other in the sense that they both follow and respond to the same trends at the same time, leading them to show many similarities all throughout history. As well as linking to one another through trends, there is a distinct correlation between fashion design techniques and architectural design techniques. Obvious examples include pleating within clothing, translating to geometric planes within buildings. The implementation of similar techniques do not necessarily line up with the corresponding time period for both fashion and architecture but, however, are relative nonetheless.

Movements such as modernism, originating from the Bauhaus, had more restricting views on the relationship between fashion and architecture; believing that fashion inhabits feminine and frivolous traits whereas architecture is much more masculine and timeless. Of course perceptions of art forms are entirely subjective and will always differ from person to person, however, I believe there to be a great connection between fashion and architecture that enable them to bounce off one another and progress in correspondence.

Using this to inform my own work, I can take into consideration designing for the body in a more literal sense, through clothing. This can be a form of inspiration that leads into interior design yet holds a sense of connection between body and interior space through that.

References:

Body & Interior Space Fashion and Architecture, (2024)

In Our Time—Bauhaus—BBC Sounds. (n.d.). 14 November 2022

Jackson, P. (2015). Complete pleats : pleating techniques for fashion, architecture and design. London: Laurence King.

Kinney, L. (1999). Fashion and Fabrication in Modern Architecture. 

Muller, F. (2000). Art and fashion. London: Thames & Hudson

The fusion of Architecture and High Fashion https://www.cuubstudio.com/blog/the-fusion-of-architecture-and-high-fashion/