A la mode – The Third Way of Fashion

Since 2004, designer Aude Lehmann (1976) and literary scholar Tan Waelchli (1974), both based in Zurich, have developped the book series Whyart – Aura, Glamour, A la mode, examining the current landscape of design, art and popular culture.
The third volume asks what it means to be «à la mode» today. When Karl Lagerfeld works for H&M, Bruno crawls on the runway behind Paris Hilton and Louis Vuitton sell their bags inside a Murakami exhibition, this indicates that the frontiers which used to separate art and fashion, original and copy, in and out are no longer extant. A la mode therefore proposes a new approach to fashion. From Viktor & Rolf to 50Cent, from Kate Moss to Sarah Jessica Parker, the various contributors seek out a «third way» of fashion transcending the old dichotomies.