The history of trompe l'oeil in fashion

What is the boundary between true and false, where does illusion end and reality begin? In the era of artificial intelligence, deep fakes, and augmented reality, the technique of trompe l’oeil, used by designers in recent collections, is nothing more than fashion's response to the confusion between virtual and real that defines our present. The term trompe l’oeil literally means “deceives the eye” and is a painting technique that, through skillful use of perspective and chiaroscuro, manages to make the human eye perceive a false three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface. This mystification of reality dates back to Greco-Roman architecture (a technique used in the frescoes of Pompeian villas to add depth to spaces), although the term was coined during the Baroque period. From Giotto to Dalí, from the Renaissance to Surrealism, to Street Art, numerous artists have used the illusion of perspective to transcend the materiality of spaces and objects. This also applies to fashion.

For the SS25 season of Prada, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons brought the trompe l’oeil effect to the runway, creating sweaters with faux embroidered collars and low-waisted pants with printed belts. In a post-show interview with The Guardian, Miuccia Prada explained: «We played with fake, not with fiction» and added, «The clothes in this collection need to be observed closely and might surprise you.» In this regard, Simons stated that the pants from the show were made of lightweight cotton painted to appear like thick wool. In a punkier take on the trend, Acne Studios created pants for SS25 menswear with printed belts featuring studs, chains, and charms, as well as denim shirts with fake tears and underwear reproducing faded jeans. Glenn Martens, using the same technique for Diesel’s SS25 collection, designed tank tops with embossed faux necklaces.

Adrian Appiolaza, creative director of Moschino and loyal to the maison's archives, also revisited trompe l’oeil designs for SS25. These included childhood-inspired drawings: a faux trench coat sketched with a blue pen on a long white dress or a shirt featuring a sailor scarf draped over the shoulders (a nod to Popeye and the cartoon world loved by Franco Moschino). Similarly, Colm Dillane, founder of KidSuper, collaborated with Cirque du Soleil artists for SS25 to present trompe l’oeil suits of “fake wood”, likely inspired by the tale of Pinocchio: half models, half puppets. Some even walked tied to strings as human marionettes operated by Dillane dressed as Mangiafuoco.

Demna of Balenciaga took a different approach for SS25, sending models down the runway in lingerie that were actually flesh-toned bodysuits with stitched-on lace bralettes and stockings. The use of this optical illusion was intentional: the show celebrated the Georgian designer's earliest fashion memories, where as a child he «drew looks on cardboard, cut them out, and assembled them to create fashion shows.» At JW Anderson's SS25, Jonathan Anderson explored the concept of mini-dresses, creating dresses with faux buttons, pieces with prints replicating wool grain through chiaroscuro effects, and outfits with faux sweatshirts printed on them. The trompe l’oeil technique is thus used to create an illusion between what we see and what we touch, revealing the true fabric of a garment. For example, consider Bottega Veneta’s faux jeans or the gray leather suit worn by A$AP Rocky in a recent campaign by the brand. Marco Rambaldi has also embraced this technique in his latest collections. The Bologna-based designer, known for his knitwear, has created cardigans, skirts, and jacquard dresses featuring female silhouettes adorned with polka-dot dresses, lingerie, fake bows, pockets, and even faux braids cascading down the sides of sweaters as if they were real hair.

Optical illusions have fascinated top designers since the 1920s. Elsa Schiaparelli was the first to use trompe l’oeil on clothing in her Pour le Sport collection of 1927, creating knitwear with faux scarves and bows draped over the shoulders. In the 1950s, Hubert de Givenchy, using designs by Manlio Rho, created scarves painted as extensions of hair: faux braids and curls worn like babushkas faithfully brought back to the runway in FW24. In the 1990s, innovative designers such as Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier used the technique to reinterpret and alter perceptions of the body: Margiela, in 1996, designed a trompe l’oeil collection with pieces featuring prints of faux wool cardigans and falsely wrinkled striped dresses, while Gaultier created garments with nude body illustrations.

In the iconic 1994 Les Tatouages collection, Gaultier introduced tops with tattoo prints, while in the Cyber Baba/Pin-up Boys collection (1996), he designed the famous muscle shirts, popularized by Robin Williams and later reinterpreted by Glenn Martens in 2022 for the Y-Project and French maison collaboration. Recently, stylist Lotta Volkova collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier on a capsule collection that reintroduced naked dresses printed with uncensored female bodies. The maison's mesh tops remain staples on luxury e-commerce platforms, with the standout Écorché Dress—anatomically reproducing male muscular structure—recently worn by Mahmood and drag queen Gottmik.