How does one trace the origin of a trend? What causes a trend to diffuse from one market to the next? Who decides what influences what? Do designers create trends or follow them?

Such questions are the proverbial chicken vs. egg ponderings of the creative world. While they can be difficult to answer, it is a common understanding amongst designers in the variety of disciplines that the seasonal creations seen on fashion runways typically fuel and influence the designs of other markets, be it furniture, product, automotive or otherwise.

There are exceptions to the rule, however. In rare pockets of time over the years, there have been moments in which the influencers have temporarily become the influencees. Perhaps a leading fashion designer stumbles across some random creative prodigy in another design market and for a brief period they stop to admire, analyze, and even emulate. A great example is Takashi Murakami's influence on Marc Jacobs, which led to the Monograme Multicolore & Cherry Blossom series at Louis Vuitton. The rise of the Art Deco movement in the early 20th C. is another great example. What began primarily as a painterly movement (seen in the works of Kandinsky and Picasso) and then an architectural style (famous examples include the Chrysler & Empire State buildings), quickly moved through the various markets to impact the collections of everyone from Coco Chanel to Paul Poiret.

The art world has been, at times, an almost never-ending supply of creative influence. From the drippings of Pollock to the abstract expressionism of Rothko, to the pop art imagery of Warhol – all have been fair game. Today we find designers in various markets keeping a close watch on the increasingly popular Art Basel Miami Beach.

Such a close watch is being kept, in fact, that many of the leading “trend watching” blogs and agencies are now sending their minions of cool-hunting tribes to forage the hallways of the Basel to report back. Only in it's 6th year, the show draws huge crowds of artists, art lovers, and subsequent hangers-on for the 20+ fairs and events (which coincide with the Basel) over a four-day period.

Yet not since the 70s and 80s when starving artists were occupying the industrial lofts of soho have we seen such a sponge-like transfer of synergy from the art world to other design disciplines. In that era, so many designers – be it of fashion or furniture or other – soaked up the artistic styling of Andy Warhol, for example, that the practically an entire decade can be stamped as "Warhol-esque". The pop influence that transpired from his work impacted not only creative types, but also impacted the attention paid to the art world as a whole. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock were also heavily referenced by fashion and product designers in the 80s, for their grafitti and abstract expressionistic works, respectively.

But what the Basel represents is something entirely different. At the surface, it is a show of art work. Dig deeper and the Basel embodies the marriage of all things artistic. Fashion meets art meets furniture meets architecture meets...everything else. The monstrous installations of Olafur Eliasson and Peter Coffin at the Basel call to mind the giant-scale sofas and lamps of Jaime Hayon. The "Bootlegs" of Eric Doeringer - his quickie reproductions of famous works of other artists, displayed in a booth decked in bright bargain-basement style signage – draw crafty attention to the knock-offs market that weeds the fashion industry.

The non-descript synergy between art and "other" is an increasingly important part of the Art Basel scene. The ever-growing Design Miami, a show that coincides with the timing of the Basel, is perhaps a symbolic suggestion that art is furniture, and indeed, furniture is art. At the 2006 show, a Marc Newson lounger was listed for a balmy $2 million. The year before, a special exhibition entitled "05 Degrees of Separation" offered works by Maarten Baas and Tord Boontje, both prominent designers within the product and home furnishings industries. That same year Ron Arad mirrored tables were fetching between $35,000 and $60,000 each.

But beyond the furniture fetching art-world prices, the mimicking of styles, theme, and references happening across the board has never been more evident: In early 2007, accessories designer Kate Spade created the Art Basel Coal Bag in homage to artwork by Lawrence Weiner. By that fall, Muiccia Prada debuted a spring 2008 runway collection featured hippie-esque art nouveau fairies and prints. Even cosmetics brands like Clarins and Make Up For Ever are getting in on the action, offering up new collections in painterly packaging.

If further proof was needed, the 2007 Basel was the first year in which the show opened its doors to fashion photography, showcasing works from photogs like Serge Lutens, Thierry Mugler (who's best known for fashion design) and Willy Vanderperre. Curated by Marion de Beaupré – an internationally renowned authority on fashion photography – the exhibit officially silenced critics of commercial work and simultaneously created a forum in which the flirtation between art and commercial design could once again ensue.

Has the popularity of the Basel been inspiration for designers in other areas? Or has the renewed interest in art references among designers attributed to more watchful eyes on the art world? Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Regardless of the pecking order, what is certain is that art movements are once again staking their claims on commercial design markets. For the home furnishings market, we can anticipate the rise of highly artistic prints and patterns for soft goods, as well as an increase in functional accessories that are works of art unto themselves. Perhaps the Basel will see a few more attendees next year.