Socialites, or “socials” as they’re called today, have existed for decades and evolved as style and glamourous social life icons.  From Babe Paley to Olivia Palermo, socials are famous for their money, style, connections, and jobs (that is if they even need one)…hey, sounds a bit like me! This mini-spread is really cool, feels a bit like a newspaper, a bit like a yearbook, and breaks down all of the top socialites through the years, up until 2009.

SOURCE: The Pipeline

Maybe one of Andy Warhol’s most famous muses, Edie Sedgwick inspired the fashion world more than anything else. Her short hair, huge earrings and furs, dark eyebrows and ultra-high heels beneath pin thin legs were avant-garde during her generation. Sedgwick’s time at The Factory would inspire fashion for decades to come.

…It can if its in a Spring 2009 collection!

We’ve all heard the cliche defense of the fashion-obsessed saying, “Fashion is a form of art!” The usual response is always soaked thoroughly with sarcasm and followed with a turn of the back. But upon reviewing the latest in trends from top designers, and some from those who have yet to burst out on the runway scene, it seems that today designers may be drawing their inspiration from, well…art!

Take a look at the footage from Martin Margiela’s Spring 2009 collection. The faceless models are reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s Mirage painting, in which the human figures are also, faceless. The extreme and exaggerated silhouettes of the jackets are comparable to the angles found in Dali’s Premonition of Civil War. The Surrealist movement in art no doubt played a role in the development of Margiela’s collection. It was that same avant-garde attitude and intriguing yet aesthetic awkwardess that catapulted artists like Salvador Dali and Max Ernst to the walls of MoMA in New York, and is now walking the runways of the world.

Need more? Okay… Remember the Spring 09 of Gaspard Yurkievich in Paris? The use of color in his line was most memorable to me. It was a perfect blend of greys and whites with splashes of color. The same color scheme is reflected in Charles Demuth’s My Egypt. Even the way the lights and camera flashes hit the prism-like shapes of the shoes was reminiscent in the cubist-influenced Demuth.

Designers need not look farther for ideas to inspire and enlighten them than a Modern Art Museum, or at the very least, a library/internet. Do you want an art-inspired look without having to wait for the sample sale? New and upcoming designer Jon Wye can hook you up with his Andy Warhol (pioneered the pop-art movement and cultivated fashion icons like Edie Sedgwick) tribute, in the form of a silkscreen tee shirt ($36, jonwye.com). Now breathe in that fresh new trend smell….and relax!

WRITTEN BY ARIEL (cultindie member)