There's an argument going on in Shanghai at the moment among fashion industry insiders over whether fashion is a legitimate art form or whether it's a craft.

Zhao Feifei looks at both sides of the debate Prada, through a high-profile touring exhibition, has shown that a pleated, flouncy skirt can be turned into a piece of installation art. Emporio Armani lets his Chinese clients know about his connection and clout with international celebrities through British photographer Rankin Waddell's pictures. Escada has invited 13 Chinese artists to express in painting or design the enigma of the female in the "Scent of Women" exhibition. Cartier flaunts its bling bling fantasies in the Shanghai Museum.

And the "fashion-meet-art" fever in Shanghai has not stopped there. Next month, Vivienne Westwood will present 150 designs to show how she has merged fashion with art whether influenced by paintings, architecture or pop culture.

The recent bounty of exhibitions led by luxury fashion brands seems to be an all-out effort to prove that "fashion is art." Others take a more cynical view that it's merely a marriage of convenience - fashion lusts after art to make money.

Victoria Lu, creative director of Bund 18's creative center who is organizing the Vivienne Westwood exhibition, says that artists and designers are one and the same - in her eyes they are multimedia artists.

It's true in some Western countries, such as United States and Britain, a few of the works of some fashion designers have been raised to the status of art and exhibited in museums. Back in 1983, when Yves Saint Laurent was given a retrospective - the first for a living fashion designer - at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, it caused a stir.

Later, the idea started to catch on. A Giorgio Armani show was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1999. Then a "Radical Fashion" show focusing on the work of Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood was held in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2001. Each exhibition was striving to demonstrate that the relationship between art and fashion was not only long-standing but also legitimate.

"First of all I have to say that most fashion exhibitions in museums are seen as art shows rather than promotions for the fashion brands," Lu says. "The decisions are made by museum professionals. It's the same case with our Bund 18. We have seen more and more museums showing the works of the great architects of our time. Why would people not ask the same questions at a promotional show for an architects' firm? In our case, the Westwood company did not contribute one penny."

The fact that the fashion brand doesn't get financially involved in the exhibition still does not change its commercial background.

Zhao Bing, the former editor-in-chief of Vision and current editor-in-chief of lifestyle magazine Top Colors, says that fashion belongs in the category of craft or applied art. "It's not art," he says. The more it looks like fashion, the less like art it is.

"Most fashion brands want to woo potential clients into the emerging luxury market in the name of art," he says caustically. "The only difference is that some gimmicks are clever and appropriate and others are a circus. Yes, it's Bund 18 which courted Vivienne Westwood rather than the other way around. Because Bund 18 will use the exhibition to promote the venue, pitting themselves against Three on the Bund, which is very dynamic about holding various exhibitions."

"Art is a discursive practice that, unlike fashion, is not constrained by factors such as wearability or by the body," says Zhao. "Nor is art defined by commodification. It should not need to be repeated that art can fail in market terms yet succeed as art in terms of influence. Nor does the view of art as a space for work exclude pleasure. On the contrary, it allows for art not to be pleasurable or, indeed, desirable."

Well, fashion is known for its short shelf-life, capricious changes and commodity content. Is it destined to be barred forever from having the chance to be classified as an art form?

Jiang Wei, a local curator, doesn't see eye to eye with Zhao.

"Designers like Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent not only changed the way we looked in the past century, they also affected the way we live now," Jiang says.

"Art comes from life. Fashion at its highest level is an art form. I don't believe in the separation of these categories. If you say all these exhibitions boil down to having a commercial promotion purpose, what's wrong with that?! Ultimately, art and commercialism can live in harmony."

But Zhao rejects the proposition that art comes from life. He says art does not come from "material life," it must come from "spiritual life."

"A Louis Vuitton suitcase, no matter how elegantly it has been made, it's still a suitcase and not a work of art," he says.

Melvin Chua, who is actively involved in the local fashion and art scenes as a public relations specialist, says that fashion is art from the actual products produced to the way they are presented. It can be both a visual and a performance art form.

So why do brands want to associate themselves with art?

"Of course there is a marketing and promotion angle to it," says Chua. "But more importantly, art can bring the brand to life. In China, art becomes a very important factor because those who appreciate and perhaps buy and collect art are the people the fashion brands want to target. When fashion meets art, it brings in a new level for creative output and energy."

Chen Cui, a visitor to the Prada skirt exhibition and the Emporio Armani photographic show, says she is totally attracted to the concept of having such fashion exhibitions.

"The brand itself exerts a big charm over people. When it links itself with art, it appeals to a wider range of audience," she says. "Sometimes, the content of the exhibition is not so important as the atmosphere and the feelings you experience as you watch and enjoy it. It can be thrilling and it has a great impact."

In addition to Westwood design exhibition, the Giorgio Armani design exhibition that has just had a successful run in Tokyo will come to the Shanghai Art Museum early next year and more controversy may be expected.

"We are looking at a new horizon in the arts," says Lu from Bund 18. "The public needs to learn more about all the possibilities that are present in the creation of a work of art. Great designers in the fields of fashion or architecture are all the same to me. They are the great artists of our time, no less than a painter or a sculptor."

Chua hopes to see more such exhibitions in Shanghai because he says they help develop a sense of what creativity is all about.

"If Shanghai is to be a real capital of style we need to have our own creative point of view and that is unfortunately lacking right now. I think by staging various, hopefully challenging, exhibitions we can offer local people a wider perspective. People need to be stimulated, challenged and sometimes shocked," he says.

(Shanghai Daily June 29, 2005)