Art takes over fashion this summer

(ANSA) - Rome, July 31 - From Japanese prints to American street art, designers have plundered a wealth of art movements to conceive their gallery-worthy clothes for this summer.
    The result is fashion that has been illustrated by everything from paint brushes to spray cans and photos.
    Miuccia Prada commissioned giant murals by artists including Gabriel Specter, Jeanne Detallante and Pierre Mornet for her Prada Foundation, which promotes contemporary art, to re-imagine their vision of femininity and power onto dresses, coats and bags.
    Bold faces were printed digitally over the lower part of a coat or created with sequins at the bosom.
    Shapes were strong - tunics and A-line dresses, streamlined coats, ladylike pleated kilts in a bold palette of khaki, mustard, dark blue and pink - a powerful artsy vibe with a hint of the 1980s.
    Japanese artist and ukiyo-e painter Katsushika Hokusai, who worked in the late 18th and early 19th century inspired Missoni's sea prints.
    Marni's Consuelo Castiglioni also eyed Japanese art for her flower patterns ranging from blossoms to petals that turned into jagged flints in a green suit that was the grand finale of her spring show - a bold statement in pure Marni contemporary art style.
    Fausto Puglisi also fell for a graphic version of wild and uncontaminated nature.
    The Valley of the Temples in Sicily's Agrigento, a testament to the greatness of Magna Grecia, shaped Dolce & Gabbana's summer collection.
    Sicily has long been an inspiration for the designing duo and its interaction with ancient Greece was apparent in prints reproducing old photographs of ruins of amphitheatres, shoes with ionic columns as heels, and almond blossoms paying homage to the natural beauty of the island, along with its architectural heritage.
    Aquilano.Rimondi's collection plunged into the nonconformist essence of Paul Gaugin.
    In a collection matching the classic beauty of duchesse satin with the contemporary edginess of neoprene, Roberto Rimondi and Tommaso Aquilano looked to Gaugin - who turned his back on success to live on a tropical island - to create clothes rich in detail, featuring spectacular tropical prints in eye-popping shades.
    Clothing had supreme polish, the silhouettes were defined to enhance the body - from the stitching pleats at the waist to crop tops - like brushstrokes on canvas.
    And from Gaugin's Tahiti to Japan through Africa, collections this season were influenced by hints of folklore, seen at Valentino, Emilio Pucci and Roberto Cavalli, among others.