Arguments for and against - Is Fashion Art?

NO

How can it be an art if it doesn't inspire and create strong emotions or even enlighten us? Fashion doesn't inspire someone like a painting of the Savannah would create a desire to travel, to explore the world etc. Dressing or becoming a designer are simply imitations and obedience to the clothing.

''It's not art, it's just clothing, art is something which everyone calls art, so if you don't call it art, then it's not art.''
But surely, everyone can't be agreed on one painting that is apparently art? That's why artists paint what they do. They want to divide opinions, to shock and cause controversy, much like designers.

''Fashion is adept at fulfilling another traditional function of art by reflecting changes in contempory culture, but only up to a point. Think of how Ossie Clark dresses in the V&A's exhibtion evoke the desire for escapism at the turn of the 1970s. Yet, unlike art, fashioon rarely expresses more than the headline of history.

And fashion has a pratical purpose, where as art does not. The result may be as gorgeous as a vintage Balenciaga ballgown or an eloquent political metaphor for its time, but it is still an item of clothing intended to be worn. Why pretend it is anything else.''

YES

''The music industry is all about selling for profit and greed .... but music is an art form''

''Fashion as a whole is usually part of a single persons expression of imagery and art, but in the world of fhasion design, is an art form by itself.