Art and Fashion is a book about collaborations between the artists who work in the colors, textures and shapes of fabrics, and those who work with paint, plaster or, in the case of Damien Hirst, formaldehyde. Because, for all the clubbiness and black sarongs of the art world, sharing, teamwork and humility are necessary to make great things. The book documents such collaborations between artists like Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring and Damien Hirst and famed clothing designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Viviane Westwood and Alexander McQueen. Leave this big, beautiful tome on your coffee table and let it fall open to the lobster dress designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and painted by Salvador Dalí, or a self-portrait of the mystical Cindy Sherman wearing vintage Chanel. It’s art forged by two hands of different worlds.
Combined efforts is also what produced one of the 20th-century’s prettiest shapes, the Karmann Ghia. Its frame and guts were Volkswagen, pulled from a diminutive Type 1 Beetle, while those gorgeous body panels were designed in Italy by Ghia, then manufactured in Germany by Karmann. Like most art, the Karmann Ghia was very beautiful, but not that inclined to movement. (Such is life with under 30 horsepower.) This searing-in-a-fun-way green example looks minty fresh and was recently refinished. Think of the Karmann Ghia as a drivable international summit.
