Shirazeh Houshiary is one of the quieter artistic geniuses to have emerged from the wave of British based artists that impacted on the international art scene in the 1980s and 90s. However, while less well known than Anish Kapoor or Damien Hirst, she is currently more visible than them in the glittering, luxury fashion stores of London’s Mayfair where fine art, as opposed to design, is adding value to the shopping experience.

This month she is featured not only with an upside down Christmas tree (based on her Tate Britain Christmas tree in 1993) in Victoria Beckham’s new showroom in Dover Street, but also with a specially commissioned 26-foot sculpture that hangs from the roof down through the central stairwell ofJimmy Choo’s Townhouse in New Bond Street.

Of the two, the Jimmy Choo site-specific commission is the more significant; it has taken a year to complete and is a first within the UK fashion industry. We know, for instance, about the private art collections of fashion moguls François Pinault, Bernard Arnault and Miuccia Prada; of designers and fashion photographers having their works marketed as fine art (see Steven Meisel in Market News); of fine artist-designed products, and of artworks by Hirst, Murakami or Carsten Höller situated or for sale in fashion stores. These are all familiar traits in the ongoing relationship between art and fashion. But how many luxury fashion chains in the UK have commissioned a fine artist to make a permanent, made-to-measure installation for their store?

Jimmy Choo, the fashion footwear brand, was propelled to fame through the sitcom Sex in the City in the late 90s, since when it has expanded into a global network with 180 stores in 32 countries. Now, this new commission is a sign that the brand is moving on, says CEO, Pierre Denis. First, they have gutted the New Bond Street building they moved into seven years ago and designed a townhouse style shop with a lot of small, intimate rooms. The colour schemes are a much softer pink than they used to be, and an elegant elliptically shaped staircase has been placed at the heart of the building. “It was my intention from the start to commission an artist to create something for this key space,” says Denis.

Houshiary was introduced to him by Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts who conceived and produced the commission for Jimmy Choo. She had previously been managing director of the Lisson Gallery in London which has represented Houshiary since 1974. Houshiary had already been making sculptures; organically shaped columns made of anodized aluminium blocks like see-through bricks, and proposed a similarly composed floating structure suspended from the ceiling that would twist and turn down the stairwell without hitting the ground.

Entitled Chrysalis, the sculpture consists of an inner core and an outer skin which Denis sees as combining the elements of strength and fragility that characterise the classic Jimmy Choo shoe. Looking at it at eye level, it is transparent; the open brick style components strike Denis as emblematic of the new DNA he is bringing to his business. But when seen from the top or bottom it resembles a serpentine body that changes imperceptibly under the influence of a discreet lighting system.

The art critic Mel Gooding has likened Houshiary’s aluminium towers to not only Brancusi’s Endless Column, but also the shapes and colours seen in the 16th century mannerist paintings of Jacopo Pontormo. Others have commented on the recurring motifs in her work that suggest shrouds and veils – metaphors for that breakthrough moment of perception and understanding.

For Denis, Chrysalis has a symbolic function, but nothing as obvious as a logo, or the functional purpose of a design. Close as they are, art and fashion should not be confused. As François Pinault, an art collector and head of luxury holding group Artemis has said: “Fashion and luxury are crafts and businesses. There are fashion designers who can be very talented, but it's not pure creation. It's not an artist in front of a blank canvas who starts every day with a new creation.”

So what value does Houshiary’s work have for Jimmy Choo? There is, of course, an intrinsic value related to the cost of the artwork. Houshiary sculptures sell for between $150,000 and $500,000 through her galleries in London and New York. But, because Chrysalis was one year in the making, and, at 26 foot, is the largest sculpture she has made, it would be reasonable to assume its price was significantly more than that. Denis, meanwhile, will not be drawn on the pricing question, and will only say that its value to the company is considerable in more ways than one.