In a recent Page Six item, designers Alexander Wang and Prabal Gurung were said to be stepping on one another's toes, due to their respective music-video projects -- Wang has pop star Santigold rocking out to a remixed version of her single, "Go", for his fall ad campaign, while Gurung debuted his resort collection in a music video for rapper Rye Rye's single, "New Thing".
While both designers focused on dressing their uber-cool musical muses, the projects seem to indicate more of a new trend than a copycat fad. Increasingly, young fashion designers and upstart music stars are finding ways to collaborate: Perhaps the days of a static celebrity face, whether an actress or a model, have been replaced by a desire for something more dynamic and bearing a more distinct personality. What's more, ever since video became the medium-du-jour in fashion -- whether in the form of short films or editorial vignettes -- music just adds to the sensory experience.
Lada Gaga, of course, is the prime example of this new collaborative movement, having become an integral player in the fashion scene through her stylist, Nicola Formichetti, who bridged the gap to designing for Thierry Mugler after dressing Gaga (and Beyonce). Another great example: Girl band, The Like, backs up their acoustic chops with a sharp style they leveraged to promote Zac Posen's Target launch in 2010, as well as a Vena Cava runway show.
The movement of fashion to music seems right in line with pop culture's fervor for stimulus-overload, and we'd put money on the fact that Wang and Gurung are just the heralds of many collaborations to come this fall.
