Catwalk photographer Christopher Moore, who was there for op art’s first trip down the runway in the 1960s, says the style, known as op art because of the optical illusions it creates with tricks like parallel stripes and concentric circles, is “slightly more discreet” in its current incarnation. That means it’s more wearable. If you’re not in the market for Dior’s $3,600 asymmetric zigzag print wool jacket, it’ll be easy to replicate in high-street stores. Zara has swirly black-and-white silk shirts and skirts on the racks for around $70. Look out for fitted trousers and shifts, neat, well-cut shirts and jackets. Bold prints “can fill out a figure so it’s important to keep the shapes very lean,” warns InStyle fashion director Tamasin Doe. “Very simple shapes suit op-art prints best of all.” With fashion rapidly becoming art–as the recent Versace and Armani retrospectives in New York and London showed–maybe it’s finally OK for art to become fashion.
