Ce n'est pas un poste de mode

Opening Ceremony & Magritte via BlouinArtInfo.com
Opening Ceremony’s month-old René Magritte -inspired capsule collection continues to captivate. If you haven’t seen them yet, the men’s and women’s clothing and accessories boast patterns adapted from twelve artworks by the Surrealist Belgian painter. The collection also includes Magritte-inspired footwear designs by Manolo Blahnik, Vans and Birkenstock. According to Opening Ceremony, the collection “continues a theme that Magritte was most interested in: extreme juxtapositions between combinations of objects, and the ordinary versus the abstract.”

"Vogue's View: Tracing a Trend: Surreality Check," Vogue (Apr 1, 1999): 184

Opening Ceremony is not the first fashion brand to re-work Magritte’s witty and thought-provoking images. Turning back the clock… In their April 1, 1999 issue, Vogue featured a spread of Surrealists-inspired fashions, and made special mention of Magritte’s work as a source of inspiration.

Magritte's La trahison des images, LACMA.org; Moschino's Magritte-inspired men's vest, 1stDibs.com
Several years earlier, Moschino adapted “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”) from Magritte’s famed La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images) to create ironic sayings for his collections, including this men’s vest emblazoned with “Ceci n'est pas moi” (“This is not me”). Although slightly different takes on the artist's work, both Moschino and Opening Ceremony's collections follow in Magritte's footsteps by challenging our preconceived notions of reality, especially of fashion.

S.S.W. Asks: What do you think of these Magritte-inspired styles?

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