Collaboration has become so mainstream that hardly a day goes by without a collaboration project making the news.

Two fashion houses team up to release a limited edition collection, or a designer from another brand customizes a particular brand's products. From these "fashion x fashion" collaborations, there's also the constant stream of "fashion x art" collaborations, where artists' works are incorporated into items or window displays are entrusted to them.

While these collaborations take many forms, it seems that truly meaningful collaborations are rare. In the case of "fashion x fashion," collaborations are meaningless unless the two parties complement each other's weaknesses. In the case of "fashion x art," collaborations are meaningless unless the two parties inspire each other to create a new "item" or "concept" that no one has ever seen before.

An impactful example of cross-disciplinary "fashion x art" collaboration was the Takashi Murakami x Louis Vuitton collection held in 2002. This collaboration, carried out on an unprecedented scale, was incredibly fresh at the time. For both artists and fashion houses, this was a groundbreaking example of collaboration, proposing and popularizing it as a new concept.

Following this trend, "fashion x art" collaborations have since proliferated on a variety of scales. However, recently, collaborations have become the goal itself, lacking new concepts or perspectives, and lacking the freshness and impact of the Takashi Murakami x Louis Vuitton collaboration.

Amid this, the Athens-based Deste Foundation is experimenting with new collaboration methods. Since 2007, they have launched the "Deste Fashion Collection," a project that selects one artist each year and asks them to create a fashion-themed piece.

While most "fashion x art" collaborations focus on the artist's influence, this project's unique approach is to reinterpret fashion from an artistic perspective.

Last summer, the collection was featured in a window display at Barneys in New York, garnering considerable attention. This collaboration takes a different approach from mainstream collaborations, and I think it was a step forward even for a department store window display. In a world full of collaborations that lack impact, this project feels like it proposes a "new concept."

In Japan, this March, Isetan Shinjuku store and Bijutsu Techo collaborated to publish a book fusing art and fashion, as well as planning a "fashion x art" window display.

I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what kind of forward-thinking project they'll show us, one that proposes a new way of thinking about "fashion x art" collaborations.