Fashion and art have always had a symbiotic relationship. Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali had a creative dynamic. Coco Chanel collaborated with Serge Diaghilev. Yves Saint Laurent was so inspired by the works of Piet Mondrian that he created dresses that resembled Mondrian’s color block canvases. Marc Jacobs during his tenure at Louis Vuitton invited artists like Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami to put their style of art on what would become best-selling and collectible bags.

Finding a thread between fashion and art this season is the designer Jason Wu. At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, inside the cavernous Agger Fish Building, guests of the Jason Wu show found an installation of 10 Robert Rauschenberg artworks. Arranged in a labyrinthine formation, the works with their play on color and transparency created a meandering runway that contrasted beautifully against the dark and hard surfaces of the warehouse venue.

The same collage technique used by Rauschenberg for his art was employed by Jason Wu for his spring 2026 collection. Transparent organza became the canvas for dresses made with strips of silk and satin. Men’s shirting was transformed into dresses that’s been spliced. Panels and blocks of fabric on skirts, jackets and dresses — sometimes in monochrome, other times in contrasting color — gave the collection a collage composition. Edges and hems were purposely left romantically unfinished and raw, with bodices falling off to reveal the construction underneath or skirt panels hanging asymmetrically exposing multiple layers. One dress, a strapless faded pink number with a full skirt that seemed to have just been tacked onto the waist creating a peplum effect, featured a Purina print in a nod to one of Rauschenberg’s pieces that made use of the dog food’s branding.

With the collection’s experimentation and dialogue with the work of Robert Rauschenberg, Jason Wu made a strong case for fashion as wearable art. And that is the kind of fashion statement this New York Fashion Week spring 2026 season needed.