Fashion designers regularly cite works of art as inspiration for their collections. But with the art market charging forward full-throttle, there’s another aspect to the way art is influencing fashion. In both the spring and fall 2007 collections, designers have taken inspiration in the idea of dressing the artist, the gallery-goer, or, more broadly, the creative-industry professional.

After all, if anyone can push the fashion envelope, it’s not going to be White House staffers. It takes an artist like Björk to wear a dress that looks like a swan wrapped around the body. The gals working in galleries or studios have their own eclectic sense of cool — and the women who pop into galleries to buy art can snap up clothes with the same high-end, high-concept artistic sensibility they bring to art buying.

It’s a broad aesthetic that translates to the runway in more than one way. For spring, Max Azria presented a collection that “embodies the true visionary,” according to the designer’s statement. And this collection provided for those visionary types with bright colors, unusual shapes, and a sophisticated, yet devil-maycare verve. In addition, the new Max Azria boutiques are designed to make the store feel like an artist’s studio.

Michael Kors’s spring collection shifted the attention to the performing arts. Dresses paired with body-conscious leotards and pink skirts were inspired by the look of dancers on stage, such as “the sleek, sexy glamour of Fosse and Verdon,” according to the designer’s show notes. But there are also plenty that suggest the relaxed, slouchy look of dancers walking out of rehearsal.

Vera Wang’s fall collection had a deep Russophile influence that ranged “from the cultural sophistication of avantgarde artists and café society to the strict elegance of the Russian army.” The moody palette and off-kilter shapes heightened the sense of artsiness.

At Twinkle, Wenlan Chia sent out sportswear geared toward a lively, urban afternoon. As Ms. Chia describes the girl who these clothes are destined for: “Her fall day might include shopping at the outdoor market, strolling cobblestone streets, attending a friend’s opening, or hopping on her boyfriend’s Vespa to go to the movies.”

Of course, designers regularly cite works of art as their reference points. For fall, Carolina Herrerra drew her color palette — captain blue, grape, poppy, and bark — from shades in Edvard Munch’s 1889 portrait of Hans Jaeger.

But it’s the girl on the other side of that process that Anna Sui channeled in her collection of short dresses, tunics, and smocks. Deep, contrasting colors and oversize accessories gave the looks a quality of art-school chic, as if the only thing the models were missing were sketch books.