The line between art and fashion hasn’t just blurred, it has dissolved. For decades, global luxury houses have looked to paintings, movements, and manifestos as instinctively as they have to mood boards. From Salvador Dalí’s surrealist collaboration with Elsa Schiaparelli to Jean Paul Gaultier turning the body into a living canvas, couture has long flirted with the gallery wall. Iris van Herpen’s laser-cut, 3D-printed gowns exist somewhere between runway and museum, while Maison Margiela plays with the surreal. On the 2026 runways, technology, sculpture, and fantasy are no longer accents, they are the language. Dreamscapes replace realism. Garments distort proportion. Fabric becomes an installation.
As the dialogue between art and fashion continues to evolve, the real intrigue lies beyond the heritage maisons. Across India and the South Asian diaspora, designers are pushing silhouettes into sculptural, almost out-of-body territories experimenting in ways that feel urgent and personal. The relationship between art and fashion may be old, but the voices shaping it are not.
Art In Motion: Amit Aggarwal
In this context, it is impossible to not talk about Amit Aggarwal — a name that has become synonymous with art-led fashion luxury in India and beyond. “Perhaps it becomes art when it asks more questions than it answers” he reflects, articulating the philosophy that underpins his work. His practice is rooted in ‘material and meaning’ allowing each piece to define itself — whether it reads as sculpture, garment, or something “suspended between function and expression.” For Aggarwal, design only becomes truthful when it lives in motion, “I aim to create forms that respond and shift subtly with movement and environment. Design is always a negotiation between structure and surrender.” For him, couture doesn’t have to choose between art, performance and innovation, “It is art in the way it carries ideas and emotion; performance the moment it comes alive on the body, shifting with gesture and presence; innovative in its refusal to remain static.”
Creative Dimensions: Rohit Mane
London-based designer, Rohit Mane speaks about design the way an artist speaks about process. “When I drape, I feel closer to being an artist. The body becomes my canvas, and the garment reveals itself through movement.” His creations exist in three dimensions: functional, performative, and emotional. “Wire allows me to sculpt, sheer fabrics let the body and skin speak, and structure gives form to emotion. I treat them the way a painter treats pigment or a sculptor treats clay.” And as global attention turns toward South Asian voices, he is clear-eyed about the shift, “South Asian creativity isn’t emerging, it’s being acknowledged. The craftsmanship, imagination, and cultural depth have existed for centuries; the shift now is about visibility and authorship.”
Textile Tales: Pranav Gulani & Neha Singh
If Mane approaches the body as sculpture, CORD approaches textile as narrative. The homegrown label has quietly mastered the art of storytelling through surface and hand. The founders Pranav Guglani and Neha Singh, speak of their karigars skilled in hand smocking, block printing, and heirloom techniques not as contributors, but as ‘co-artists.’ Each technique that the designers uses carries generational knowledge, “When we work within these traditions, we are entering a dialogue rather than directing a process. The garment becomes a meeting point — where design intention and lived craft quietly converge.” They emphasise, “Nostalgia is our quiet design language, and memory a powerful artistic medium. Every print, stitch, and hand finished detail carries their intuition, rhythm, and lived experience.”
Narrative Art: Devanshi Tuli
When it comes to creating imagery that look like artworks themselves, Devanshi Tuli approaches styling as narrative construction rather than ornamentation. For the Delhi-based stylist, a look becomes art “when it begins to tell a story beyond trends — when every element feels intentional rather than decorative.” The Indian references that surface in her imagery are not imposed but instinctive. “It’s intuitive, almost like muscle memory. I don’t consciously set out to weave Indian references into my work; they’re already a part of me.” Whether merging Art Deco with Deccan miniature painting in a jewellery campaign, which she describes as feeling “closer to composing a canvas than dressing a subject,” or expanding a fashion shoot into a multimedia exploration.
Perhaps the line between art and fashion was always destined to blur and reform with each generation. In speaking to these creatives, what stood out was a shared conviction — that design will continue to evolve, provoke, and astonish. And in a world that scrolls relentlessly forward, what feels more radical than lingering? To pause, look twice, and carry that feeling long after the screen goes dark.
