4 fashion exhibitions to colour your summer 

A beautiful exhibition dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel, a display of the best works of Yves Saint Laurent, an Iris Van Herpen retrospective and a not so known posture of Andy Warhol (designer for textiles) are waiting for us. These are 4 fashion exhibitions to colour your summer. 

• Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England: “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” – from September 16, 2023 to February 25, 2024 (https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/gabrielle-chanel-fashion-manifesto)
• Museum of Lace and Fashion, Calais, France: “Yves Saint Laurent: Transparencies” – from June 24 to November 12, 2023 (https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/en/)
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France: “Iris van Herpen” retrospective (https://madparis.fr/Iris-van-Herpen-Sculpting-the-Senses) 
• The Fashion & Textile Museum, London, England: “Andy Warhol: The Textiles”(https://www.fashiontextilemuseum.org/)

1. V&A: “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto”

The V&A is to host the first UK exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturière Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, charting the evolution of her style and the House of Chanel, from her first millinery boutique in Paris in 1910 to her final collection in 1971. The exhibition will feature more than 180 looks, seen together for the first time, alongside jewellery, accessories, cosmetics and perfumes. The exhibition, based on the Chanel exhibit organised by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, will be reimagined for the V&A and feature “rarely seen pieces” from the V&A collection, alongside looks from Palais Galliera and the Patrimoine de Chanel, the heritage collections of the fashion House in Paris.

2. Museum of Lace and Fashion: “Yves Saint Laurent: Transparencies”

The Museum of Lace and Fashion in Calais, France, is to host an exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturier Yves Saint Laurent examining how he used the effects of transparency of fabrics “to propose a new, powerful, and sensual female figure”. The exhibition will feature more than 60 pieces from the Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and the Museum of Lace and Fashion collections to highlight how much the couturier has been able “to overturn the codes of the unveiling of the female body”. Will be on display garments, accessories, drawings, photographs and videos, his first see-through blouse, and his “nude dress” made entirely in transparent chiffon embellished with ostrich feathers.

3. Musée des Arts Décoratifs: “Iris van Herpen”

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs will to pay a tribute to Iris van Herpen with an “immersive and sensory exploration into the designer’s universe” recognising the Dutch designer as one of the most avant-garde figures of her generation. The retrospective will merge fashion, contemporary art, design and science and revolves around eight themes that identify the “very essence” of Iris van Herpen’s work. It will include a selection of contemporary works of art, installations, videos, photographs and works from natural history, alongside a hundred dresses designed by Iris van Herpen. 

4. The Fashion & Textile Museum: “Andy Warhol: The Textiles”

This exhibit explores the beautiful and fascinating textile designs by the pop artist and icon Andy Warhol and his unknown and virtually unrecorded world of textile designs. Dating from his early career as a commercial designer and illustrator in the 1950s and early 1960s, Warhol’s textiles are now considered an important part of his body of work. The exhibition includes over 45 of Warhol’s textile patterns from the 1950s and early 1960s, with colorful objects – ice cream sundaes, toffee apples, colorful buttons, cut lemons, pretzels and jumping clowns exhibited both as fabric lengths, some in multiple colorways, and as garments. Some of the most important manufacturers in American textile history are also represented, such as Stehli Silks, Fuller Fabrics Inc., and M Lowenstein and Sons. 

Photography: courtesy of museums archives.