Trend Alert: Trompe L’Oeil

The French term trompe l’oeil means “trick the eye” and refers to the convincingly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. Appreciated on the frescoed walls of Ancient Greek and Roman villas, the Renaissance’s heavenly domed ceilings, and in surrealism’s conceptual play on the term itself, the trompe l’oeil technique satisfies our human curiosity to discover what is hidden and understand double meanings.

Elsa Schiaparelli was the first to bring the technique to the fashion crowd with her avante-garde and conceptual designs of the late ’20s (even if fashion has always played a bit with notions of disguise and reality). These days, we’re seeing the trend highly circulated among luxury heavyweights. Take Bottega Veneta’s first FW22/23 collection under Matthieu Blazy featuring leather pants that look just like Levi’s blue jeans. Pierpaolo Piccioli harkened the same sentiment in his last FW23/24 couture collection for Valentino—thousands of microbeads, dyed in 80 different shades of indigo make up the pattern of (again) a classic worn-in blue jean. Modern cult favorites, like Margiela and Y-Project, play with the form of the female body, giving the wearer a naked or, alternatively, layered look. Other emerging favorites include Elliss and Andersoon Bell. Shop pieces with a trick up their sleeve, below.