BACKGROUND
What do Tom Ford, Raf Simons, Pierre Balmain, Pierre Cardin, Gianni Versace and Virgil Abloh all have in common? Before kickstarting a flourishing career in fashion, each of these individuals enrolled to study architecture or industrial design. Architects like Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas have repeatedly collaborated with fashion houses and imparted their quirky vision to develop an experimental and bespoke range of products.
It is unsurprising that architects – artists who obsess over scale, shape and proportion in their work – tend to apply the same tenets to their personal style; while many fashion designers have cited architecture as a practice and individual architects as inspirations for their designs. Fashion and architecture have the same point of origin, the human body. Dressing of an individual provides a definition of personal space as do architectural structures though they are bigger in scale. Both fashion and architecture express ideas of personal, social and cultural identity, reflecting the concerns of the user and the ambition of the age.
The Italian city of Milan is recognized internationally as one of the world's most important fashion capitals, along with Paris, New York and London. Milan’s quintessential bi-annual event, Milan Fashion Week is one of the most important events for all fashion lovers, as well as industry professionals and journalists.
