Over the years, architecture and fashion have grown in a symbiotic relationship. With both industries honouring materiality, form, and movement, these boundaries have become more porous: collaborations between architects and fashion designers celebrate these disciplines as artforms, in and of themselves.
There are many fashion designers who take cues from architecture. With structured garments that feel almost sculptural, prints that mirror mosaic, or textiles that play with light and movement, fashion and architecture’s unique exchange pushes the boundaries of disciplinary practice.
Sculptural configurations
In a recent collaboration between Young Urbanists and Design Week South Africa, one of Cape Town’s busiest streets was turned into a runway with a showcase by fashion designer Onesimo of One I Am.
‘Seeing these models walk around Bree Street, it was like these moving objects, like moving buildings, with the way they navigated through that space, and I could see my garments as a kind of armour,’ Onesimo reflects on the showcase. ‘I’ve always thought of myself as a fashion artist,’ he explains. His pieces are sculpturally driven, blurring the lines between fashion, art, and architecture.
Onesimo draws on his Xhosa heritage in his work, particularly Umbhaco, which is traditional attire that has a strong sculptural silhouette that he then reconfigures into his work. In this way, Onesimo echoes the sentiments of South African architect, Johannes Berry, who says, ‘work that does not naturalize the structures of culture — and thus reconfigures them — asks to be understood not in terms of what it looks like, but in terms of what it means. If a work fails to do this, it is no longer architecture or fashion, but merely buildings or a garment.’
Material culture
For internationally renowned fashion designer, Sindiso Khumalo, materials inform her design practice and storytelling. Having studied and worked in architecture, Sindiso designed her newly launched flagship store to be centred around her deep connection to materials and textiles.
‘All the elements that I think about when I’m making a garment sort of came into fruition when I was making the store,’ Sindiso explains, describing her approach to designing her flagship store. She wove sustainable approaches into the layout of the space, ‘All the conversations the brand has been having in terms of working with waste, making and remaking, and reimagining waste have also come back into the shop itself.’ She worked with local designers such as Dokter and Misses, ARRANGE Studio, and Wunders to capture the story of South African design, highlighting its focus on sustainability, craftsmanship, and innovation.
“These collaborations showcase how disciplines can work together to create pieces that are rich in meaningful storytelling.”
Storytelling as utility
‘Architecture and fashion, unlike the arts, carry a functional value, and unlike utility, carry an expressive value. This mediation between the real and the representational offers a unique position to these works and shapes how they relate to us,’ says Johannes.
This blending of industries showcases how disciplines can work together to create work that is rich in meaningful storytelling. To create across disciplines, where art exists at these intersections, is an act of enriching our understanding of the role art and architecture play in society and culture. They demonstrate that, ultimately, architecture and fashion form two parts of the same artistic practice.
