Thursday, January 30, 2025

Louvre Couture

 a Balenciaga ready to wear look at the Louvre

 From the Louvre:

Although we have known since the days of Paul Cézanne that ‘the Louvre is the book from which we learn to read’, this inexhaustible wellspring of inspiration has also nourished one of contemporary art’s liveliest domains: the world of fashion. More and more, research and monographs dedicated to the greats of fashion have boldly begun to trace aesthetic family trees, establishing these figures in a historical and artistic context. The pattern is not merely one of disruptions, with various degrees of radical innovation, or of seasonal changes, but also one of echoes and evocations. The threads weaving their way between the work of great fashion figures and the world of art are almost endless, and the history of art as expressed by the Musée du Louvre, in the depth of its collections and in the ways it reflects the tastes of days gone by, is an equally vast terrain of influences and sources.
 
In consideration of the Louvre’s encyclopaedic immensity, this exhibition follows a methodological approach geared towards exploring the history of decorative styles, art professions and ornamentation through the galleries of the Department of Decorative Arts, where textiles are omnipresent – though generally in tapestries and other décor items rather than in articles of clothing.

Over a nearly 9,000-square-metre space, 65 designs are displayed, along with a number of accessories, newly illuminating the close historical dialogue that continues to take place between the world of fashion and the department’s greatest masterpieces, from Byzantium to the Second Empire. Each of these garments and accessories is on special loan from the most iconic fashion houses, both long-standing and recent, in Paris and throughout the world. (Read more.)

 

From W Magazine:

"The impression that I would like people to take from this exhibition is the fact that museums are very free and contemporary places,” says Olivier Gabet, the Louvre’s senior heritage curator and director of the Department of Decorative Arts. “I wanted to show that what can seem at first sight like a dusty collection, can be absolutely modern in terms of inspiration.” Gabet brings a deep knowledge of fashion from the blockbuster fashion shows like Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêves that he organized at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where he previously served as director before joining the Louvre in 2022. In his estimation, the Louvre is a “vast mood board,” a source of endless inspirations and influences for contemporary designers and fashion lovers. (Read more.)

 looks from Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, Loewe and Gareth Pugh


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