Artists are typically the most unaffectedly chic figures at any fashion function I’ve attended of late, where they’re increasingly present. Hermès’s show atop a Bel Air bluff in June, for instance, saw Karon Davis and Precious Okoyomon seated amid the fashion house’s usual Birkin-toting clientele; and at Chanel’s latest Grand Palais show, Simone Fattal was the true star amid a glittering front row.

Artists’ style is shaped by unique circumstances: the practical demands of working in the studio, the art world’s social obligations, their ever-more public-facing cultural roles, and an often singular commitment to distinct aesthetic expression. As Charlie Porter writes in his cultural history of artists’ relationship to clothes, What Artists Wear (2021), ‘in the hands of artists, garments reveal themselves. They are pure tools of expression, storytelling, resistance, and creativity: canvases on which to show who we really are.’

Here, five artists with particularly considered approaches to dress unpack their wardrobes’ most cherished pieces.

Martine Syms: versatile garments and strong silhouettes

Los Angeles-based artist Martine Syms likes clothes that stand out and can adapt to the myriad contexts her working day presents – whether she’s creating renders for a new multichannel installation, on set for her latest film, or putting in a late shift in the edit suite. ‘I like versatile, well-made garments, high-quality fabrics, and strong silhouettes that make me look unapproachable,’ she says. Items that fill the brief include a pair of slight barrel-leg jeans from Eckhaus Latta’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection (‘I actually just got them tailored, so my ass looks great in them’), a 2018 Comme des Garçons Homme Plus blazer, and London-based designer Martine Rose’s relaxed Oxford shirts.

‘I can make them look both incredibly elevated and really everyday,’ she explains. ‘Just in the past week, I wore all of these things for lunch with a friend, to a screening of my film at the BFI London Film Festival, and to Art Basel Paris. There’s also this oversized Vaquera lingerie shirt that’s a pajama-to-studio-to-party look for me. Add my favorite pair of Maison Margiela boots? Done.’

Shuang Li, from designer knock-offs to full Miu Miu

‘On a normal day at the studio, I might wear a Miu Miu shirt layered with a My Chemical Romance T-shirt, a Miu Miu pleated skirt, and super comfortable Prada platforms,’ says Berlin- and Geneva-based artist Shuang Li. Her love affair with the Pradasphere is reciprocated: she designed the set for Miu Miu’s Spring/Summer 2023 fashion show in Paris; that same year Fondazione Prada in Milan staged a solo show of her work exploring new digital frontiers. At the opening of ‘Alliance’, Li’s exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel earlier this year, she wore full Miu Miu, a glitchy riff on womenswear archetypes that included a peplum leather apron dress and platform sandals.

‘The first bag I ever owned as a teenager was a knockoff Miu Miu – and that was before I even knew what Miu Miu was!’ Li confides. ‘I saw the bag – a beige piece with bows on the side – online and immediately fell in love. The mean girls at school would make fun of me because they knew it wasn’t real. That’s when I learned what value a brand can hold.’

Nicole Colson’s go-to designer

Clothes by Lemaire, Prada, and Sinéad O’Dwyer figure regularly in London-based artist Nicole Coson’s repertoire. If there’s one designer that defines her wardrobe, though, it’s Carl Jan Cruz, known for his raw-edged synthesis of Western and Filipino style cultures, and with whom she shares a hometown: Manila. ‘I always find myself reaching for his pieces,’ she says. ‘His clothes make me feel both secure and confident without much effort – whether it’s for my openings, installing exhibitions, or even my own wedding.’ The artist wore an open-backed, quadruple-layered gown for the big day that made her ‘feel like a gooseberry – but in the best way.’

Coson’s day-to-day clothes include Cruz’s articulated, moto-inspired denim trousers. ‘Some version of them has been in my weekly rotation for at least a decade,’ she says. ‘They’re incredibly practical. I wear them to install exhibitions, move artwork around, and stretch canvases.’ Then there are his ‘armor-like,’ structured denim jackets. ‘I like how the same pair of trousers might have been worn while printmaking, installing an exhibition, and then celebrating.’ A little like her canvases that bear ghostly, palimpsestic traces left by a printing process, these clothes, she explains, ‘accumulate their own history through use.’

What Eric N. Mack buys for his exhibition openings

Eric N. Mack’s wardrobe brims with deep cuts: a vintage Romeo Gigli suit; a trompe l’oeil ‘moth-eaten’ knitted shirt by IYKYK London designer Cecile Tulkens; a Miguel Adrover baseball cap, released to commemorate 2000s New York fashion’s enfant terrible’s arrival on Instagram. There’s a striped Balenciaga Bazar bag (a key accessory in cementing the house’s former creative director Demna’s iconoclastic vision) that he describes as ‘beat up but well-loved, and easily fits my computer, book, and journal.’ His Wales Bonner for Manolo Blahnik pony-hair opera shoes were ‘inspired by André Leon Talley’s own custom Manolos,’ and worn by the artist as part of the ensemble he created in collaboration with the brand for the 2025 Met Gala.

Mack’s collection has grown with his career. ‘When I have an opening, I try to shop for at least one piece to add to my wardrobe,’ he says, highlighting a Dauan Jacari one-piece, styled with Balenciaga cap-toe cowboy booties, worn to the 2025 MoMA PS1 Gala, which Mack art directed.

His favorite suit is a navy Issey Miyake two-piece with yellow batik slashes printed across its length. ‘I love a good textile, material, and color,’ he notes. ‘I’ve been told I dress like my work.’