Light as the air: an Yiqing Yin fashion exhibition in Calais 

“D’air et de songes” – this is the (poetic) name of a beautiful exhibition that is taking place right now in the French town of Calais. Well, in a special museum, Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion. The exhibition of Yiqing Yin, the first designer of Chinese origin to receive the French haute couture label is more just a dresses’ display. The exhibition invites visitors to step into the soul of creation, where the spark of an idea takes shape long before it blossoms into a gown. (Photo up – dress Lyre – Yiqing Yin-Photo ©Laurence Laborie)

#ArtBlogger #FashionBlogger #Exhibition #English

This exhibition highlights the hybridization of Yiqing Yin’s artistic disciplines, where dreams intertwine with sensory exploration. By showcasing the work of this internationally acclaimed young designer, the museum offers a unique immersion into a body of work marked by remarkable depth and delicacy.

Yiqing Yin favors an intuitive approach, working directly with the materials. She sculpts the void, folds the light, captures the breath, in an organic relationship with textiles. The visitor is invited to immerse themselves in this creative process, to capture the moment when the material becomes emotion.

Yiqing Yin. D’air et de songes – 14 June 2025 – 4 January 2026 – Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion – https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/ 
Over 550 m², nearly 70 haute couture creations compose a sensory journey combining textiles, sound, perfume and light.

About the designer… 

Yiqing Yin, the first designer of Chinese origin to receive the French Haute Couture label, is a multi-disciplinary artist. At the crossroads of different art forms, her sculptural and ethereal creations weave a dialogue between human fragility and the transformative forces of nature. A grand couturier, artistic director, costume designer and muse, Yiqing Yin embodies multiple roles.

Drawing inspiration from the mineral, vegetal, and animal worlds, the artist crafts a living poetry that forms the narrative thread of the exhibition. Each creation unfolds as a dreamscape, where reverie and the awakening of the senses intertwine in an aesthetic of metamorphosis.

A “Guest member” of the Chambre Syndicale de la haute couture since 2012, Maison Yiqing Yin was honored with the official haute couture label in 2015. She became the youngest and the very first member of Chinese origin to receive such a distinction.

About the exhibition… 

The title of the exhibition refers to the work Air and dreams by Gaston Bachelard. This common thread runs through the entire scenography: breath, the invisible, metamorphosis, impermanence. 

Haute couture gowns, visual artworks—photographs, films, drawings—sonic textures of whispered words and rustling air, and delicate olfactory trails punctuate this immersive journey, inviting visitors to embark on an intimate exploration of their own imagination.

Yiqing Yin draws her inspiration from the mineral, vegetable and animal, to compose moving forms that do not seek to dress the body, but to reveal its presence. Some dresses seem animated by their own breath, like the dress Orchid or the dress vertebraeThe materials – silks, tulles, Venetian velvets, microencapsulated organza – are worked by hand with a meticulousness that gives each piece the quality of a living sculpture. The exhibition journey goes beyond the gaze: it engages all the senses. Rustling air, poems, photographs, and above all exclusive perfumes punctuate the visit. 

Photography: (C) courtesy of Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion.