The Louvre Couture exhibition is paired with the Objet d’Art collection that weaves through the Richelieu and Sully wings. Items that date from the Middle Ages and Byzantine period to the items once owned by the last Kings and Emperors of France give life to more than 100 pieces of fashion from 45 brands.
Curator of the Objet d’Art collection Olivier Gabet previously oversaw the Musée des Arts Decoratifs which held a monumental Christian Dior exhibit in 2017 that celebrated the house's 70th anniversary. If you saw this exhibit, you would never forget it, it was stunning and the precursor to the Galerie Dior museum which opened in 2022. With a history of blending fashion and decorative arts together, the Louvre as the largest and greatest museum in the world was a perfect place to hold an exhibit.
Truth be told when I originally heard a year before the Louvre was going to hold a fashion exhibit I was against the idea. There are more than 175 museums in Paris and plenty to showcase fashion. However, at the pre opening event surrounded by the designers and fashion big wigs the exhibition was unveiled and I was flabbergasted. One room after another, each more fabulous than the one before. A few items are even paired with the piece that inspired the designer and paints the story of how art imitates fashion without saying a word.
It has drawn visitors to a part of the museum that would never venture there before, unless lost.The Louvre like every other museum in the world is trying to address the need to evolve programming within their walls to bring in younger audiences. Current director and first woman to hold the title since its opening in 1793, Laurence des Cars has been adding more musical, dance and theatrical events and to kick off the first ever fashion exhibit a Met Gala like dinner was held in March that made its way through social media.
The exhibit has worked to draw a crowd and the rooms that are normally empty are bustling with people including many that only come to take photos of themselves. Gabet and Des Cars hoped that the exhibit would also appeal to Parisians that normally avoid the museum for fear of being trampled by tourists.
The exhibit is split into four distinct sections beginning with the Byzantine and Middle Ages, followed by the Renaissance, Baroque and 18th century, and ending with the 19th century in the so-called Apartments Napoleon III. The fashion however dates mostly to the last twenty years with a few vintage accessories and a recreation of a 1949 Dior treasure.
The exhibit runs through the first floor of the Richelieu wing and a portion of the Sully wing. Just past the elevators and opposite the Angelina Cafe. Standing tall on the mirrored riser is a reproduction of Christian Dior’s 1949 dress, Musée du Louvre. In just his third collection Dior drew inspiration from the Paris streets and monuments and named each piece after a beloved location.
The black and white stunner named for the museum was purchased by Gala Dali, wife of Salvador who purchased it at the runway show on June 27, 1949 at 30 Avenue Montaigne.The dress remained in her collection and much too fragile and damaged to be used. Using the original drawing by Dior, notes and photos the dress was recreated in 2024 in the Dior workshop in Paris.
White faille Française is adorned with black chenille flocking, wool and delicately studded with rhinestones and glass stones. Topping the mannequin is a hat also newly created by the Stephen Jones Millinery house in a style of Dior but not the one in the original sketch.
The first section of the exhibit begins just through the large entry and features fashion inspired by the Middle Ages and Byzantine art. The two styles and periods overlap beginning in the 4th and 5th centuries and ending in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. From some of the darkest moments in history to the high point that brought us Gothic cathedrals, gilded and bronzed items and carved ivory, it's one of the most notable periods of time that continues to inspire.
Byzantine art was a major inspiration for the designers before the turn of the 20th century. The first courtiers Charles Worth and Paul Poiret recreated the golden themes of Constantinople. Reliquaries covered in gold and precious stones, crowns and carved ivory pieces even hundreds of years later have their moment on the runways of Paris and Milan.
Gianni Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent can cite specific exhibits and pieces that would go on to inspire an entire collection.
The first dress you find as soon as you enter is a golden beauty by Gianni Versace. Created for the Autumn/ Winter collection of 1997 - 1998 which was also the last collection of the Italian master.
In May 1997, Versace visited the Met museum and the “Glory of Byzantium” exhibition and discovered a reliquary with a Greek cross that drew him in. In his final runway show on July 6, 1997 held within the Ritz the scene was set with the perfect backdrop of Greek columns surrounding the swimming pool. Models glistened in shimmering gold and silver fabric with topaz and beaded crosses. Nine days later, Gianni would be killed in Miami.
For the gold metal sheath dress shared in the Louvre, Versace and his atelier worked for more than six years to create the perfect metal fabric that was thin enough to drape. They certainly mastered it in this dress and its lovely draped neck and the way it shines in the light as you move around it.
The Louvre paired the Versace dress with an 11th century Byzantine reliquary that once held a piece of the True Cross. The gilded silver and copper box created in Belgium was brought from Constantanople by a Belgian prince returning to Liège from a crusade. Inside a piece of the True Cross that held Christ in the final moments of his life. Given to an abbey that later closed, it was transferred to a private collection and eventually donated to the Louvre on June 3, 1929.
Viewing this exhibit isn’t just about the couture, it is just as much about the pieces of art surrounding them. A conversation between fashion, art and the viewer.