Gallery Looks: Fashion Staging at the Gemäldegalerie

Exploring the interface between art and couture, the Gallery Looks exhibition highlights the encounter of the Old Masters with contemporary fashion – in design, photography, film and haute couture. It brings together different artistic approaches and shows how fabrics, cuts, colours and histories are reflected in the various media and woven together into vivid narratives.

Shooting Amidst Style and Fabric

To mark the tenth anniversary of the BERLINER SALON in February 2025, fifty-five designers presented contemporary German fashion design among paintings by the Old Masters at the Gemäldegalerie. Preceding the opening, photographer Ralph Mecke staged selected designs that were presented by models in the Gemäldegalerie’s halls for the magazine ACHTUNG. In an atmospheric video made during the event, Florian Azar translated the shoot into poetic cinema. The film and photographs are displayed at the exhibition, impressively illustrating the close connections between fashion and art.

Art Meets Couture

In summer 2025, Jonathan Anderson, Dior’s creative director, found inspiration for his 2026 summer show at the Gemäldegalerie. For his presentation in front of Hôtel des Invalides, he had a backdrop erected that was modelled in detail on the Gemäldegalerie’s halls – a tribute to a place he describes as one of the world’s most beautiful museum spaces. Two original paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699–1779) complemented the setting. In addition to one of Chardin’s Berlin paintings, the Gallery Looks exhibition also features videos of the show that highlight the interplay of historical and contemporary elements in Anderson’s designs.

Painting and Fashion – Mirrors of the Times

In addition to films and photographs, the exhibition also presents creations by selected designers in dialogue with prominent paintings. This encounter reveals surprising parallels in the exploration of aspects such as expression, beauty, identity and societal roles. For the exhibition, designers Anne Bernecker, Plaid-à-Porter / Estelle Adeline Trasoglu, Karen Jessen and Alexander Gigl developed new creations or provided designs that interact with the paintings. This highlights the strong links between artistic tradition and contemporary design. Fashion becomes a medium of reappropriation and transformation, with art historical motifs transferred into the present, opening new perspectives.