Art and fashion have, and always will, go hand in hand. I cannot sew to save my life, but I can absolutely appreciate the creativity and beauty in all of the fashion inspired work shown below. From the artistic minds of designers, illustrators and photographers come the beautiful initial sketches, the elaborate runway shows, the high fashion magazine spreads… and oh yes, let’s not forget the actual clothes themselves!

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Warhol spent the early part of  his career as a commercial illustrator. He worked for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the I.Miller shoe company. If you want to see more, you can pick up Andy Warhol Fashion, a book that has gathered up a sampling of this work in a nice little paperback.

I love this. A Wizard of Oz inspired fashion spread, photographed by the amazing Annie Leibovitz. What’s extra special though are the models involved. Dorothy is played by actress Keira Knightly, but her ‘supporting’ cast might leave you feeling like you’ve been hit by a tornado. The tin  man is John Currin, Jasper Johns as the lion, the scarecrow is Brice Marden and the flying monkey is none other than Jeff Koons. Now that’s art and fashion going hand in hand… all the way down the yellow brick road!

Before she started working her magic with a black marker, Charlotte Mann actually studied and worked in fashion design until she truly began to focus on her art. Thank goodness for designer Peter Jensen that she did. This is a set she created for his Resort 2010 presentation. His collection was inspired by photographer Diane Arbus and ‘every aspect of the room [Charlotte] drew is taken from a Diane Arbus photograph, except the wall paper, which is pure Peter Jensen, and every single bunny drawn freehand.’

Gorgeous.

What do you get when you have 7,000 handmade white paper flowers, made out of 4000 square meters of paper, taking a total of 4,800 hours of work to assemble? The stunning cut paper art work that lined the runway of Chanel‘s Spring/Summer show in Paris. And it didn’t stop there. All of the models wore elaborate paper headdresses designed by Japanese hair and makeup artist Katsuya Kamo. Why so much white paper? Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s head designer and creative director, explains:

“A white page”…”It’s like a starting point for the story of this new era for which all the details still need to be written. That is why I chose paper as the theme for the couture collection this season. It’s also the fabric that I prefer most… I love paper! Everything begins on paper. Without paper I would be lost!”

Russian born, now New York based, fashion illustrator Eduard Erlikh is the master behind these graceful, multi-layered water colours. Ready to hear a little fashion name dropping? Here’s his client list: vogue usa, vogue germany, vogue sposa italy, vogue japan, elle germany, marie clair france, madame figaro paris, bazaar japan, frau japan,  wallpaper, w, town &country, tush, royalton hotel nyc, tiffany, bloomingdale’s, limited, federated, holt renfrew, nk stil, cinzano italy.

Yep.

Ah, Springtime in Paris. The flowers are in bloom, and art & fashion are more in love than ever. Ok, it was actually October, but love was definitely in the air. New York painter Trey Speegle was commissioned by Stella McCartney to create the backdrop for her Spring 2010 show in Paris this past fall. In his signature paint-by-numbers style he, and a small team, painted this huge YES painting just in time for Stella’s amazing designs to walk down the runway.

{To see video of the show, and a quick interview with Trey, visit Style.com.}

Ah, haute couture. Fine art strutting down a runway instead of hanging on a gallery wall… especially when it’s done by designer John Galliano. Voilà!