“When you walk through the rooms of the Louvre, fashion is everywhere”

“When you walk through the rooms of the Louvre, fashion is everywhere”
“When you walk through the rooms of the Louvre, fashion is everywhere”

INTERVIEW – This is a first: with Louvre Couturethe “museum of museums” brings together masterpieces of decorative arts and iconic clothing from great designers.

In recent years, there is not a major institution that has not had its fashion exhibition. Normal, the subject, at the crossroads between scholarly culture and pop culture, fascinates the crowds, particularly Gen Z, who are fond of the spectacular. But until now, the “museum of museums” had not tried it. It’s done with Louvre Couture (1), a dazzling journey that brings together iconic pieces loaned by forty-five of the greatest houses and masterpieces from the museum’s objects department.

At the very heart of the collections, on 9,000 m2, there are silhouettes signed (among others) Azzedine Alaïa, Rick Owens, Hubert de Givenchy, Marine Serre, Thom Browne, Alexander McQueen, Demna and Karl Lagerfeld which resonate with history decorative arts, that of styles, crafts and ornament, from Byzantium to the Second Empire. An aesthetic, scholarly and offbeat stroll at the heart of fashion history since the 1960s, designed by Olivier Gabet, director of the Louvre’s art objects department.


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A subject he knows like the back of his hand having been at the helm of the Museum of Decorative Arts in for almost ten years. It was notably under his leadership that the MAD was a hit with exhibitions like Thierry Mugler, couturissime or Sculpting the Sensesdedicated to the Dutch designer Iris van Herpen.

Madame Figaro. – Is the Louvre an unexpected fashion place?
Olivier Gabet. – It is true that the Louvre does not have a fashion collection strictly speaking, however, the museum has very important textile collections, medieval tapestries or sumptuous Coptic fabrics, for example. And, when you walk through the rooms, fashion is everywhere! Here, an ancient painting, there, an Egyptian bas-relief, further on, a Greek sculpture… The issue of clothing is intensely artistic. It was also the object of Parade at the Louvre (2), the book on which I worked in collaboration with the fashion critic Sophie Fontanel. Then, the Louvre and its Cour Carrée regularly host fashion shows since 1982, notably those of Nicolas Ghesquière for the Louis Vuitton house. Finally, the Louvre is still the mood board absolute, many creators come to draw their inspiration there!

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How did you choose the hundred or so silhouettes and accessories presented?
There are creators who are obviously essential on the subject: I am thinking of Hubert de Givenchy, whose passion for art objects is well known, of Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel or of Yves Saint Laurent, who were, as we know, great collectors, or even John Galliano for Dior. Others are more unexpected and will, I hope, surprise the public, like Jonathan Anderson for Loewe, Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli or the work of Matthieu Blazy for Bottega Veneta (he was named artistic director of Chanel in mid-December, Editor’s note).

A Dior dress, signed John Galliano, which echoes the gilding of old furniture.
© Louvre Museum – Nicolas Bousser

The new generation is therefore very present in the exhibition. How do young creators find inspiration in art objects?
They have a perfect command of art history. Take Iris van Herpen, for example. We present two of her creations, including an impressive cathedral dress decorated with 3D printed patterns inspired by Gothic architecture. This work made me think of all the vocabulary of censers and precious arts of the end of Flamboyant Gothic – a period to which Iris, of Flemish origin, is very sensitive. Another example with the radical Marine Serre. She is a regular visitor to the collections, who has a perfect command of medieval art and excels in the recycling of visual cultures. We present, alongside splendid medieval tapestries, a coat in upcycled patterned fabric Lady with the unicornand the connection is striking. Other young creators have a fairly distanced relationship with questions of art history, like Simon Porte Jacquemus, who is very free on this subject. We then play the baroque card, and present a rather extraordinary ball dress, a model from its Le Chouchou collection (presented at the Palace of in 2024, Editor’s note) in the Napoleon III salons. As for its Chiquito microbag, we compare it to our showcases of miniature objects, like these 18th century snuff boxes. It works very well.

The connections are very precise and scientific, but do you also play with the discrepancy?
Otherwise it would be completely boring. Fashion is neither a pretext nor an alibi, and the objects are not simple documentation in relation to fashion either: there is a real level of equality in the treatment. And even if we play with regalia, coronation objects or royal collections, that doesn’t stop the humor. For example, we present the famous pigeon minaudière by Jonathan Anderson for his brand JW Anderson (in 2020, Editor’s note) next to a magnificent Eucharistic dove, a splendid naturalistic bird in enamel. Jonathan Anderson’s work for Loewe is also present, with this impressive one-piece hammered pewter metallic jacket on display in our armor room. We also worked on contrasts, like for Balenciaga. We showcase a graphic black suit with a lacquered hat, from Demna’s first couture collection for the house, in the salon de l’Abondant – one of the most beautiful settings of the 18th centurye preserved in the world. Here, I wanted a dichotomy between silhouette and decor, and I was inspired by photos of Balenciaga women from the 1950s and 1960s, all these great New York socialites like Baroness de Rothschild or Mona von Bismarck… They were displayed in Cristóbal Balenciaga dresses with refined and conceptual shapes… in their 18th century interiorse ultracharged.

So is fashion also art?
Fashion is one of the most exciting and dynamic fields of expression in contemporary creation. In the exhibition, there are pieces of absolute beauty, like this sculptural dress by Azzedine Alaïa, on loan from the Foundation. This is one of the designer’s latest models (disappeared in 2017, Editor’s note) and we bring it into dialogue with the Crown Bronzes, Louis XIV period. In 2015, Azzedine Alaïa presented his creations alongside the masterpieces of the Villa Borghese in Rome – so it’s a nod. Fashion designers are creators like any other, their sensitivity and the acuity of their vision say the right things about our times.

Chanel haute couture jacket, spring-summer 2019, by Karl Lagerfeld.
© Louvre Museum – Nicolas Bousser

(1) Louvre Couture. Art objects, fashion objectsfrom January 24 to July 21, at the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

(2) Parade at the Louvreby Sophie Fontanel, Edition Seghers, October 2024.

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