Chivalry reigns on, according to Mary Katrantzou, who incorporated regal, heraldic motifs in her fall collection (top center-left). Dolce & Gabbana (bottom left) borrowed from the stately robes worn by the fabled King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, as depicted in a 15th-century manuscript (top left). The princesses they fought for were evoked in ethereal white gowns at Alexander McQueen (bottom right); these maidens looked as if they could live at Neuschwanstein Castle (top right) in Bavaria, built in 1869 by the eccentric King Ludwig II. In tales and fables, thickets like the Dark Hedges in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland (bottom center), where “Game of Thrones” was filmed, are alive with fairy creatures of the kind sculpted by Janine Janet (top center-right) in 1957.

Fairy tales are more compelling when based in reality. Since serving as the refectory of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, the Great Hall of Christ Church (bottom center) has become the most visited site at the University of Oxford, and the Witch’s House (top center), built by the Hollywood art director Harry Oliver in 1921, is now a much-frequented landmark in Beverly Hills. For fall, Disney’s Snow White appeared on dresses at REDValentino (right) and at Alice and Olivia, where a model played the pale beauty in a crystal casket (left). Schiaparelli showed a dress embroidered with a bleeding heart (far right) while Dolce & Gabbana created a woodsy cape (center) and Undercover’s coronated models (far left) clutched electronic apples as if to ward off temptation.

Fanciful spaces have often been realized by those who wished to occupy their own made-up worlds. One was the Prince Regent, who in 1815 employed John Nash to create the Indo-Saracenic pavilion (top left) in Brighton, England, as a riposte to the classicist architecture of the time. Tony Duquette’s Malibu Ranch (top center) was a latter-day equivalent: a city of pseudo-oriental architecture, in which one could easily dress in Anna Sui’s chinoiserie-inspired fall line (left). In a rural setting, Valentino’s gauzy frocks (both bottom right) might fit in Marie Antoinette’s 18th-century fantasy farm, L’Hameau de la Reine (bottom center), at Versailles. A truly quixotic landscape is seen in Salvador Dalí’s 1946 painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (top right), which depicts a metropolis set upon the backs of animals. The sandy hues in the exotic worlds conjured by Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn in their narrative photo novellas (center) is echoed in Ralph Lauren’s majestic fall evening wear (center left).