What’s the crossover appeal of fashion, art and design?

There was a year at Frieze art fair where the usual 11am jostle at the entrance felt particularly charged. A casual onlooker may have assumed that there were works so covetable and precious that a certain amount of physical struggle was warranted. In truth, the mad dash being made by collectors and leaders of institutions alike was for the MatchesFashion vending machine, where gifts ranged from bars of chocolate to buttery leather Marni bags.

The overlapping calendars, consumers and partnerships between fashion, art and design are now so porous as to be indistinguishable. Nearly all art and design fairs will have some level of fashion sponsorship; so, too, will institutional shows. Some brands have taken this further by sponsoring a whole gallery in perpetuity, as Burberry has at the V&A. Or, in the case of LVMH and Prada, they may launch galleries of their own.