Until January 26, 2024, the exhibition “Fashion in Models”, offered by the Museum of Decorative Arts, highlights “the model deposit”, images taken from life or staged, a real tool in the fight against counterfeiting in the world of pre-war fashion.
Filed with the industrial tribunal or the court registry until 1979, model filings made it possible to legally protect a creation and thus initiate an action for infringement in the event of a copy. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the context of the development of Parisian haute couture and, at the same time, the counterfeiting of which it was the victim, these photographs acquired the status of evidence in numerous trials.
Preserved at the Museum of Decorative Arts in 1940, these unique images now constitute a visual resource for the major houses who frequent the institution in search of inspiration and models.
As part of the “Fashion in Models” exhibition, more than 120 photographs from the collections are placed alongside fashion silhouettes and accessories by major designers, from Jeanne Lanvin to Jean Patou, including Marcel Rochas, Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Paquin, or even Elsa Schiaparelli.
Through this never before presented photographic collection, the veil is lifted on a practice which marked the world of fashion at the beginning of the 20th century and whose objective, that of protecting models from counterfeiting, remains extremely relevant today. , in view of the possibilities offered by the digital revolution and artificial intelligence.
