That said, Vuitton covers all its bases by directly supporting emerging artists as well. Its discrete gallery space — located above its flagship store in Paris, accessible by an elevator designed by Olafur Eliasson — hosts shows bearing only a loose connection to the brand — or none at all. Hermès and Ferragamo present art in their own spaces, too. But the luxury brand that goes the furthest, perhaps, is Prada, which since 1993 has operated the contemporary art–focused Fondazione Prada in Milan, whose artistic director, Germano Celant, is also coincidentally a curator at the Guggenheim. Every year, the foundation exhibits two artists, but its activities are largely separate from what comes down the runway or is found in the stores. If anything, it is through the physical stores themselves that Prada links retail to the arts. The New York flagship by Rem Koolhaas — who also did work for the Fondazione in Milan — is in the building that once housed the Guggenheim SoHo.

Even if the future of retail collaborations between fashion and brand-name artists is less promising than in the recent past, the broader connection between the two fields is strong. Luxury brands have created the expectation that they will be associated with creative institutions or show the work of artists directly. And after 12 years of the Hugo Boss Prize, it is highly unlikely that a year of economic instability will shake the award. As Kettenbach said: “We put serious effort and budgets into this. To give it up because of one bad year would be stupid.”