Fashion designers who were Architects

Intro

In the realm of design, where creativity and functionality converge, there exists an unexpected yet fascinating intersection between two seemingly disparate worlds: fashion and architecture.

Shared Traits of Architects and Fashion Designers

Despite their different subjects, architects and fashion designers share many commonalities in their work. Architects plan and design buildings, taking into consideration factors such as aesthetic appeal, cost-effectiveness, safety, and functionality. Fashion designers, similarly, consider aesthetic appeal, cost-effectiveness, safety, and functionality when designing clothing. Both architects and fashion designers are craftsmen of structure, breathing life into their creations. Perhaps for this reason, it's not uncommon that people who initially majored in architecture become renowned fashion designers. Let's explore some examples of such cases.

Fashion designers who were Architects before:

Virgil Abloh, Glenn Martens, Pierre Balmain, Gianni Versace, Tom Ford.

What they have in common is that they were architecture students before becoming fashion designers. They all say that fashion and architecture have many similarities. Let's find out how they expressed the inspiration they received from architecture through clothing.

Virgil Abloh, OFF-WHITE, LOUIS VUITTON

"We can use our architecture brain and do many things, not just what we're supposed to do."

– Virgil Abloh

Virgil Abloh started creating a fashion brand right after receiving his master's degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Abloh takes his design skills and applies them in the fashion industry. After successfully establishing his brand OFF-WHITE, he freely presents geometric and three-dimensional designs at his LOUIS VUITTON.

Virgil Abloh's Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2019 Runway (Source : www.theafrofusionspot.com)

“Use art to invent, just like you can invent a new way of distributing load in a tall building.”

– Virgil Abloh

He was one of the most influential fashion designers of his time and the first black Creative Director at LVMH. Through his numerous works and statements, you can catch a glimpse of his architectural background.

Glenn Martens, Y/Project, DIESEL

Portrait of Glenn Martens (c) Arnaud Lajeunie

"You have to be true to yourself, that's the most important thing I learned: Integrity. At the Antwerp Academy I was taught to make things again, I was always told to re-do every school project. They never explained what was wrong or why I should do it again. However, that allowed me to find my language, to really connect with myself."

- Glenn Martens

Glenn Martens, a Belgian young man majoring in interior design, happened to see the building of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, a prestigious fashion school. Out of curiosity that fashion might be fun, he submitted a portfolio and despite the academy’s selective admissions process, was accepted to Antwerp.

Y/Project, A/W 2018-19 (c) Arnaud Lajeunie

He mixes historical references with clothes and designs in three-dimensional space. Since 2020, he has also taken on the role of Creative Director for DIESEL, reviving the brand into the hottest one at present.

Pierre Balmain, BALMAIN

Pierre Balmain (source : Balmain)

“Dressmaking is the Architecture of Movement.”

- Pierre Balmain

Pierre Balmain, who grew up with his mother who ran a curtain store, was close to fabric from an early age. He was an architecture student, but he drew more sketches of dresses than sketches of buildings. Eventually, several of the designs from those sketches were made into actual costumes, which led him to become a fashion designer. Pierre Balmain is considered a designer who revived women's elegance lost after the war and made the most changes to the dress genre.

Pierre Balmain (source : Balmain)

Pierre Balmain (source : Balmain)

Pierre Balmain says that both costume design and architecture are similar tasks in that they involve 

turning a design in one's mind into reality. However, unlike buildings that always stay in one place,
dresses take on different forms depending on the movement of the wearer, so they had to constantly change during the making process.

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