Dirty Dancing: Fashion, Ballerinas, and Edgar Degas

It is impossible to speak about fashion and impressionism without referring to the ballerinas of Edgar Degas, but behind the image of the graceful dancers lies a dark and painful story. In the lecture, we will follow Degas' famous dancers, who became a source of inspiration for artists and designers, and the fluctuations that dance provoked in the fashion world. While fashion has perpetuated the sculpted body of a dancer as the ideal figure, it is from the delicate and intriguing web of connections between fashion, ballet, and art, that will allow us to explore the ways in which contemporary fashion designers have the ability to liberate us from the idea of the “perfect body” altogether. In a fascinating visual journey, we will investigate the ironies of beauty and pain, ballerina shoes on a stiletto heel, and the designs of Dior, Chanel, and Issey Miyake.