Art Meets Fashion With Yves Klein 1960 & Céline SS||2017 Runway Collection

The Céline Spring/Summer 2017 collection, presented at the Tennis Club de Paris, featured a well known image on the garment from the Artist Yves Klein's estate.

A quick reflection with regard to the legalities of using this image. From experience as an academic and researcher on these matters, this is usually achieved through a licensing deal. The image Anthropométrie de l'Époque bleue was created in 1960 so copyright still subsists in the image (lasting for the life of the author + 70 years).  Therefore the fashion house would have ideally licensed the right to use this image on this dress from the Klein estate. This is a common practice. Last year, I won the AHRC researchers-in-residence award for a placement to work with DACS the Design and Copyright Artists Society the visual artists rights management organisation that represents over 90,000 artists worldwide. DACS represents, artists like Damien Hirst and notable others.  They work toward transforming the financial landscape for visual artists through products and campaigns that champion IP rights for the sustained and vital contribution of artists in the creative economy.

During my time at DACS I focused on the management and monetization of artist’s creativity through art/fashion collaborations.

It was frequent for established fashion houses to call up explaining that they wanted to use an iconic or late artists image in their couture of RTW collections, and with DACS being an artists rights management organisation, the call was often to discuss how the fashion house could go about licensing the artists IP.

In today’s current climate, it would seem that many contemporary artists are starting to operate like fashion designers and embracing the commerciality of their work and new business models that allow them to continue to monetise their IP.

The merging of fashion and art often appears to be a creative endeavour - however in reality these interactions may be more appropriately viewed as commercial ones. Where both the fashion designer and the artist get to benefit.