Made from thousands of live plants, Jeff Koons’s massive topiary half-dinosaur, half-rocking horse head sculpture, “Split-Rocker,” sits majestically in the gardens of Basel, Switzerland’s Fondation Beyeler. The work is part of the artist’s retrospective at the Swiss institution, which ends on September 2. Koons’s shiny sculptures that fill the show are hardly related to the main business of its sponsor, the German fashion house Hugo Boss.

Hugo Boss isn’t the only fashion company that has a strong foothold in the art world. In 2012 alone, British label Mulberry and luxury e-tailer Net-a-Porter helped foot the bill for Frieze Art Fair’s inaugural New York edition. Louis Vuitton underwrote Yayoi Kusama’s retrospective at both the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London. Last spring in Paris, Salvatore Ferragamo sponsored the Louvre’s spring exhibition, “The Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci's Ultimate Masterpiece.”

Why do fashion companies find contributing to the arts so appealing? The business strategy serves as an investment that helps elevate brands to a level that extends beyond the clothing they produce. It creates a lifestyle around the labels and secures a cultural status similar to the sophisticated, savvy consumers they want to court. And the exchange is twofold: it acts as a mutually beneficial relationship that boosts a fashion house’s cultural capital while allowing cultural organizations a way to pay for the exorbitant expenses behind staging an exhibition.

Several common traits link fashion and art, making them ideal business partners. Fashion designers from Raf Simons to Burberry’s Christopher Bailey to Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy often find inspiration in art. It’s not uncommon to spot designers at galleries and art fairs, searching for the latest piece to add to their collections. “When we first started the fair in London, it was really interesting to me that every year the person at the front of the queue would be Alexander McQueen on the opening day and you would see that every major fashion designer that you could think of would be at the fair looking at art and buying art,” Frieze co-founder Amanda Sharp told ARTINFO.

“I think that art and fashion fit quite well because both are very creative,” Hjoerdis Kettenbach, head of corporate communication at Hugo Boss, told ARTINFO. “I think about our competitors and I think it’s the same for them — many of their customers are interested in art. Maybe some of them are art collectors, or they are traveling a lot and visiting museums.”

But it isn’t simply a question of a fashion company looking for an art partner. For both sides, it’s about pairing a project with a like-minded benefactor – otherwise both parties risk contrived results.

The rewards reaped by fashion companies for underwriting art projects vary. Hugo Boss employees have free admission to exhibitions sponsored by the brand, and consumers see the label in a different light. “People recognize us in another way, not just through our stores or advertising, but on a more sophisticated level,” said Kettenbach. “I think that many of our customers like culture and art, and if they see that in a magazine that Hugo Boss is doing that, I think it has a very good impact on the brand as well.”

Salvatore Ferragamo secured a place in the Louvre’s history books when the museum allowed it to become the first fashion house to stage a runway show there in exchange for subsidizing the Leonardo exhibition. Louis Vuitton’s numerous art sponsorships were part of a package that included collaborations like the clothing line Kusama designed with the brand.

On the institutional side, hefty checks from fashion companies allow organizations to present elaborate exhibitions and glamorous parties, while adding a sense of luxury that appeals to the wealthy patrons they target.

The Jeff Koons retrospective at Fondation Beyeler served as a prime networking opportunity for Hugo Boss, as it took place during Art Basel. “We could host an event, we could meet people there — journalists, the art scene, everybody came, and that was really something exciting for us,” Kettenbach said.

Not a bad return at all for a fashion company with money to invest in the arts.

Click on the slide show to see images from exhibitions sponsored by fashion labels. 

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