The Louvre Fashion Exhibition Experience
And what it finally means for fashion and art to meet each other in the city that is famous for both, Paris.
I went to Paris last weekend and while I was planning my daughter’s first trip/Valentine’s Day as a mother for the first time, I thought what a better place to take a two months old than Louvre, no but honestly, she might not have a clear vision yet but if there is one in a million chances that her environment affects her intellectually, there's no better environment than one of the biggest museums in the world.
While considering this, I bumped into an Instagram Live of Loic Prigent in which he was backstage on the preparation of a Fashion exhibition in Louvre and I knew I had to get there, so I went and booked tickets for the three of us. It was a three birds one stone kind of situation, my daughter would have her first real museum experience, my husband would get to have a fun - no queuing museum experience and me I would get to see some of the most iconic fashion pieces.
When I heard about this initiative, I thought “finally Louvre tries to be more like Met”, but then on a second thought, Louvre has an obligation to be more than Met and introduce fashion in the Louvre experience, because Haute Couture was born in France and ok maybe the exhibits of the Louvre are not exactly French but there is a big history of European art that is based in France and that fashion is based on.
Let me explain this better. The exhibition was situated in the 1st floor of the museum, on the Richelieu and Sully wings of the “Decorative Arts/Europe” part and the exhibits were very carefully picked to match the decorative reference of each room. Throughout the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI, the French art of living developed and the royal residences were transformed accordingly. The Court of Louis XIV was officially established at Versailles in 1682, but the Sun King continued to use his palaces in Fontainebleau, Compiègne and Marly – and wherever he went, the decoration and furnishings had to be fit for a king. With these peaky requirements, we ended up having a great variety of “culture inspired rooms” like the “Turkish room”, the “Japanese room” or more generic the “flower room” a simple rococo style etc. but also a French revolution.
These 150 years (between 1643 and 1793) of the lush living of French aristocracy, actually gave us fashion as we know it, with the first tailors putting their tags on their clothes for the aristocrats, so everyone would know that they were part of this lush elite that can afford it. You might want to read more about the history of Luxury here. That escalated very fast and in 150 years, we went from Queen Marie Therese of Spain the spouse of Louis the XIV to Queen Marie Antoinette the spouse of Louis the XVI and the one that poses as inspiration of so much fashion of today. In 1776, Marie Antoinette’s dress allowance was 150,000 livres, a sum she exceeded by over threefold. For context, that figure roughly translates to $3.6 million in today's money.
As you can see some of the most iconic moments of fashion history were inspired by this period. At this moment, I want to say that I never thought I will ever see a piece of John Galiano’s Dior era from his 2005 Fall/Winter collection, it was mesmerising and unique. Most of the garments in the pictures, if not all, are inspired by that era of French royalty and their eye for style. The era that the aristocracy had an internal competition on whom will wear the most extravagant and expensive garments in the ball. It’s the era that left us with hundreds of myths for stolen necklaces, tons of ribbons, millions of livres and hidden behind the closed doors gossips.
Having these haute couture and ready to wear pieces inside the Louvre, respectfully matched with the style of each room, is like taking students for a history class in an actual historical field. What a better way to learn about the ancient Olympics than taking them to the Ancient Olympia archaeological site. What better way to understand fashion than putting the Dior dress from the Marie Antoinette collection of 2005 in the flower room of Marie Antoinette inside the Louvre.
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So much inspiration from that era is still on today’s fashion, with the bows and the ballon skirts and the Chouchou collection by Jacquemus, bringing the Louis era back to the runways. You don’t need to be so extravagant to get a piece of Marie Antoinette, you just need this bubble skirt, these tights, with these shoes and a nice little bralette. Add some pearls and some cherries, some sheers on top and you are ready to go. If you want more Antoinette inspired items you can find a full list here.
