The Swiss fashion brand's creative director Albert Kriemler and the German artist teamed up for a brunch and a guided tour at the art fair as the invention of photography marks its bicentenary.

Before Albert Kriemler, creative director of Swiss luxury house Akris, approached him about a collaboration back in 2014, the closest thing German photo artist Thomas Ruff got to fashion was having his photographs printed on T-shirts.

By contrast, Kriemler went all out for his fall 2014 collection, translating Ruff’s swirling, smoke-like photograms into jutting tulle ruffles on LBDs; his eerie green 1992 nighttime photos of German homes as translucent, color-gradient studs; and his dreamy star photos as twinkling LED embroideries on dresses and handbags, a technical achievement St. Gallen embroidery house Forster Rohner says has yet to be repeated.

“In this case it was not a collaboration. I think he’s the artist and my images were just the source,” Ruff demurred on Thursday. “I just delivered the files and he did the rest.”

Ruff and Kriemler were reunited in Paris on Thursday thanks to the Paris Photo art fair at the Grand Palais, where Ruff took center stage with two dozen of his meticulous, mostly large-scale works hung across the 120-foot entrance wall.

Kriemler seized on the high-profile moment to host a brunch for select VICs, press and gallerists at the Paris showroom of Akris, where he installed some Ruffs from his private collection next to the fashions and accessories they inspired.

His lucky brunch bunch then got to spend nearly 30 minutes with Ruff at the fair, where he recounted a nearly 50-year career exploring the outer reaches of photography and image making.

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