Abstract Artists Caroline Rousseau interprets fashion on canvas

09/16/23 by Kerin Tsui

Artist Caroline Rousseau hopes to create not only visually appealing art pieces, but also emotional connections with the designers themselves. 

Rousseau gets her inspiration to create art pieces from various fashion designers and their work. For New York Fashion Week 2023, Rousseau brought her new exhibition, Art of the Couture, to the viewers. This exhibit focuses on her interpretation of 5 of the top 10 designers to watch in 2023 from London’s Central Saint Martin’s. She uses vibrant colors and diverse shapes and textures to showcase her understanding of not only the designers’ pieces, but also of fashion itself — she uses the language of painting to translate the language of fashion design.

One of Rousseau’s favorite pieces from her exhibition is inspired by designer Carson Lovett, whose new collection reflects the Bohemian spirit and features vintage and thrift movement.

“It’s Caroline’s special ability to pull the sense of these pieces and channel that into a different medium. So that is why you see so many different qualities of the paintings, because the research itself that each designer organize came from different places, so you see that she approaches each differently,” said Lovett.

She also explains what it felt like for her to channel with one of the fashion designers when creating her own work. 

“I just couldn’t stop, and next thing you know, 18 hours had gone by. I sent a snapshot to him, and I was just like, can you feel this? Does this translate? And when he said yes, I literally had goosebumps. It was very emotionally gratifying and professionally gratifying.”

The exhibition takes place from Sept.9 to Sept. 12, and a virtual tour will also be available online after the live exhibit.