Magritte and Opening Ceremony collaborate – surreal fashion

An exciting new fashion curveball has taken shape in the form of a collaboration celebrating surrealist artist Rene Magritte and style savvy retailer Opening Ceremony.

Initially combining some of the Magritte’s most successful works with the popular shoe brand Vans, Opening Ceremony have branched out within their new artistic relationship and applied 12 of his most iconic paintings to ‘dresses, button-downs and pants’ which are released this month.

The pieces thrust Rene Magritte into the limelight some 50 years after his death, proving the triumph of his transcendent work.

His surrealist paintings focused mainly on combining ordinary everyday objects in a slightly skewed context and with a world of fantasy and dreams.

Opening Ceremony’s annual showcase of a visiting country is an original idea from creators Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, which enables the company to expose the talent and spirit of a particular location; which happened to be Belgium in 2013, tying the link between OC and Magritte.

This multinational approach to retail ties in closely with the inspiration for the name of the company, which came from the modern Olympic Games.

Although 12 of Rene’s works have been selected for the line, there are a few standout pieces.

‘Sheherazade’, one of the most symbolic works from the collection features the blue eyes and red lips of a woman, on a background of a cloudy sky. This is incredibly attractive when applied to Vans and Birkenstocks, making for some very stylish footwear.

The Opening Ceremony blog states ‘As part of our year of Belgium, we’ve created a collection dedicated to one of the country’s greatest artists, René Magritte.

Working in conjunction with the Artist’s Rights Society, we’ve printed reproductions of the artist’s most iconic Surrealist paintings on classic Vans styles, giving a whole new meaning to the term “wearable art.”’

Ranging from $185-$825, the line isn’t particularly purse friendly, but it is sure to be a great success, with the individual and original items for both men and women hitting the shelves.