The relationship between luxury fashion and art goes back a long way. After all, if fashion designers are artists who create wearable works of art, then art has always been part of fashion's DNA.

Designers have long drawn inspiration from artists, artistic movements and individual works, while fashion houses regularly join forces with the art world on special projects. Chanel, for instance, dresses dancers at the Paris Opera. Miu Miu brings cinema and live performance together, while Prada fills its Milan art center with giant spider webs.

As the luxury fashion industry faces an increasingly challenging period, fashion houses are realizing that runway shows and advertising campaigns alone are no longer enough to keep them in the spotlight, connect with existing customers or attract new audiences. Instead, they are branching out into different art forms, from theater and ballet to painting and sculpture, developing their own cultural projects and giving artists a platform to showcase their work.

Some are even putting millions of dollars toward the restoration of historic landmarks. Projects unveiled in recent months offer a glimpse into just how far the relationship between fashion and art has evolved.

Ballet meets haute couture

The historic Palais Garnier in Paris welcomed the opening of its new ballet season on Oct. 10, with Chanel dressing the dancers on stage. Matthieu Blazy designed the costumes for "Rings of Saturn," the first work created for the Paris Opera by choreographer Juliano Nuñes. The navy shirts worn by principal dancers Hugo Marchand and Germain Louvet were embroidered with colorful threads inspired by Saturn's rings.

Rather than traditional ballet costumes, their outfits looked more like carefully crafted everyday clothing. The tutus and tiaras worn during the evening's traditional opening performance also came from Chanel.

The fashion house's relationship with the Paris Opera is nothing new. Chanel has supported its opening gala since 2018 and has been one of the institution's leading patrons since 2023. In 2025, it also began providing dedicated support for the restoration of the historic opera house. As part of a renovation project expected to cost around 450 million euros ($506.2 million), Palais Garnier is scheduled to close in July 2027 for five years. This year's gala raised 1.8 million euros for the restoration.

Chanel is also a founding supporter of the Junior Ballet, a company that gives dancers aged 18 to 25 the opportunity to gain professional experience.

Art beyond screen

From Oct. 21-25, Miu Miu is transforming Paris' Palais d'Iéna into an unconventional artistic space. Titled "Geste de Consolation," the project, curated by French filmmaker Alice Diop, brings together film, photography, sculpture, poetry, music and dance. Marking Diop's first venture into exhibition design, it explores how Black women have been represented throughout art history.

The project grew out of "Fragments for Venus," a short film Diop made for Miu Miu in 2025. The exhibition also features works by photographer Zanele Muholi, sculptor Simone Leigh, choreographer Nadia Beugré and musician Angel Bat Dawid. Organized into four sections, it is open to the public free of charge.

Miu Miu's engagement with the arts goes well beyond this project. Since 2011, the brand has been running "Women's Tales," a series of short films directed by female filmmakers. More recently, its "Tales & Tellers" project, held in Shanghai in June 2026, brought together 31 short films and seven artworks originally created for runway shows. Actors brought characters from the films to life through live performances, while AMO, the research arm of architecture firm OMA, was responsible for the exhibition's design.

Unexpected forms

The art center housed in a former distillery in Milan is home to an unusually striking exhibition this year. "Over, Under and in Between," a project by Palestinian-British artist Mona Hatoum, opened on Jan. 29 and remains on view through Nov. 9 at Fondazione Prada.

Hatoum has created three installations for the center's Cisterna building, exploring the visual forms of nets, maps and grids. Using patterns that might otherwise seem ordinary in everyday life, the artist evokes feelings of insecurity, fragility and danger. Visitors are not simply invited to look at the works; by walking through the spaces they occupy, they become part of the exhibition itself.

Fondazione Prada is the cultural institution established by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. Its main Milan venue opened in 2015, following a transformation of the former industrial complex led by architect Rem Koolhaas' OMA firm. Independent of Prada's fashion collections, the foundation organizes contemporary art exhibitions, film screenings and research projects. Hatoum's exhibition is among the highlights of its 2026 program.

Portrait of identity

In Venice, the city where Bottega Veneta was founded, the fashion house is supporting a major exhibition by American artist Lorna Simpson this year. Titled "Third Person," the exhibition opened on March 29 at Punta della Dogana and runs through Nov. 22. Featuring around 50 works, it is one of the most extensive presentations of Simpson's work in Europe in more than a decade.

The exhibition brings together paintings, collages, sculptures, installations and films spanning more than two decades of the artist's career, alongside works created specifically for the show. Simpson's practice, particularly in photography and painting, explores identity, memory and the ways images are interpreted. Her "Ice," "Special Characters" and "Earth and Sky" series are among the works that reflect these recurring themes.

Bottega Veneta's involvement is framed as more than a conventional advertising partnership, with the fashion house named as a special supporter of the exhibition. The brand has previously backed exhibitions by Pierre Huyghe in 2024 and Thomas Schütte in 2025 at the same venue, extending its relationship with Venice's contemporary art scene into a third consecutive year.

Forms in motion

Dior's Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection, presented in July in the gardens of Paris' Rodin Museum, took inspiration from the work of American sculptor Lynda Benglis. Creative director Jonathan Anderson reimagined the artist's sculptures, which often appear frozen in the middle of movement, through fabric and form.

The curves, glossy surfaces and fluid shapes characteristic of Benglis' work found their way into the collection through draping, knotting and intricate embroidery crafted in Dior's ateliers. Some fabrics were designed to resemble paper or plaster, while metallic finishes and beadwork echoed the interplay of light across the artist's sculptures.

Following the runway show, the Rodin Museum opened an exhibition titled "Grammar of Forms." On view free of charge through July 12, the exhibition brought together Dior's latest haute couture designs, archival pieces and Benglis' sculptures. In doing so, it took the artistic dialogue beyond the runway, allowing visitors to see both the works that inspired the collection and the garments they helped bring to life under one roof.

Investing in art

Louis Vuitton has added New York's Frick Collection to its growing portfolio of arts initiatives this year. Announced in July, the fashion house's three-year partnership with the museum will support its upcoming exhibitions and research activities.

Housed in a historic mansion on Fifth Avenue, the Frick Collection is renowned for its works spanning the Renaissance through the 19th century. Louis Vuitton will serve as the lead sponsor of three major special exhibitions over the next three years. The first, which opened in October 2026, explores Sienese bronze art from 1450 to 1500. It will be followed by an exhibition dedicated to French enamel artist Susanne de Court.

Another notable part of the partnership is the opportunity for visitors to enjoy free admission. On selected first Fridays of the month, the museum will open its doors free of charge from June 2026 through May 2027. The fashion house's support has also made it possible to establish a two-year art history research position, currently held by Yifu Liu, whose work examines cultural exchanges between Europe and China in the 18th century.

Beyond its partnerships with established institutions, Louis Vuitton continues to organize exhibitions at its own cultural spaces in cities including Venice, Tokyo, Beijing and Osaka. In Venice, for example, digital artist Lu Yang's DOKU "The Illusion" exhibition welcomed visitors during the 2026 Venice Biennale.