Artworks on Fashion Products as a Practice of Appropriation

Abstract

This article analyzes the “fragment citation” of paintings on fashion goods as a practice of appropriation. The relevance of the issue is to examine such copying through the prism of borrowing and put it into scientific discourse, as well as to consider the emerging trend towards a neutral approach to such practices, carried out through a dialogue between the parties involved. It is this form that can allow the fashion industry to work with art on a deeper level and create products with high symbolic value. Fashion and appropriation are considered as complex and multifaceted cultural concepts. The researchers propose several approaches to understand the close relationship between fashion and art, which show their historical context and development. Appropriation is also examined from several perspectives as cultural and artistic ones. The main difference between them is in the actors, understood as cultures or groups and authors. One example is the recent collaboration between the fashion brand Who Decides War, invited by H&M, and the Estate of J.-M. Basquiat. It is shown how this practice, used by fashion agents, builds the parallels between designers and artists, the differences in their work style, and the goals they set to increase the symbolic value of their products. Such parallels also indicate that fashion agents can resort to the practice of art appropriation, combining its cultural and artistic embodiment.