Fashion Forward, 3 Centuries of Fashion

Alina Aliman| April 12, 2016

Over 300 items signed by great designers from Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, Gabrielle Chanel to Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent are exhibited at Paris, at The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, until 14th of August, 2016. The ‟Fashion Forward, 3 Centuries of Fashion (1715-2016)” exhibition will bring together 300 items of men’s, women’s and children’s fashion from the 18th century to today, selected from the museum’s collections to provide a novel chronological overview. (CLICK on the gallery above, for more pictures)

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of its fashion collection with ‟Fashion Forward, 3 Centuries of Fashion (1715-2016)” exhibition, from April 7 to August 14, 2016. (www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr)

Fashion is a history of evolving techniques, materials and designs but also a history of changing times and attitudes, a reflection of the art of living. Therefore, in a completely novel manner, the exhibition recreates each of these ‟fashion moments” in its human, artistic and social context, illustrating fashion’s constant elective affinities with the decorative arts.

Eighteenth-century wood paneling, scenic wallpapers by Zuber, Paul Iribe’s drawings for the ‟Robes de Paul Poiret”, and the straw marquetry doors created by Jean-Michel Frank for the writer François Mauriac, provide perfect settings for fashion’s stylistic expressions and the metamorphoses of the body and style from the 18th century. The exhibition culminates in the effervescence and singular eclecticism of the global contemporary fashion scene, in which the names of the most original creators are now associated with the most ancient fashion houses.

Travel clothes, Mme Siebenmann, 1898; day dress Mme Bombes, 1885; Mariano Fortuny, evening dress Delphos, 1910-1915

Visite, 1870-1890; Elsa Schiaparelli, Cape Phoebus, haute-couture winter 1938; Elsa Schiaparelli haute-couture fall/winter 1938/1939

Christian Lacroix, Mademoiselle Hortensia, haute-couture fall/winter 1992/1993; John Galliano for Christian Dior, spring/summer 1998; Charles-Frederick Worth, evening dress, 1885