“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”

With every new season and each cutting-edge collection, there is less of a need to choose whether to be or to wear, as Oscar Wilde admonished. Both formally and conceptually, the distinctions between art and fashion have eroded; art is worn on the streets and fashion is displayed in museums.  At Naeem Khan’s Spring-Summer 2017 runway show, wearable art flourished.  One eye-catching dress, in a sunny yellow hue, called to mind the work of late Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto.  Penetrable, 1990, one of the artist’s sculptural installations, invites the viewer/participant to move through its mass of plastic noodle-like forms, creating a dialogue between the work of art and its perception. In much the same way, the dress activates its wearer through the movement of dynamic fringe that flaps against the body, accentuating its motion.

This is not the dress for a wallflower; neither is Soto’s sculpture intended for the passive viewer.  Soto’s particular form of art was known as “Kinetic Sculpture” – simply put, sculptures that move.  Given that definition, isn’t all fashion that can be worn a form of Kinetic Sculpture?  Each time a garment is set to motion by its wearer, a form of sculpture is brought to life.  With this dress, the wearer doesn’t have to choose – she can both be a work of art and wear a work of art simultaneously.

Ariel Adkins is the Founder of Artfully Awear