Look ! 40 ans de mode au musée

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Musée des Arts de la Mode within its walls, through 40 iconic silhouettes.

The major exhibition “Look ! 40 ans de mode au musée” reveals the expertise and gestures of fashion which, from couture workshops to the museum’s behind-the-scenes spaces, turn clothing into a work of art.

The exhibition invites visitors to follow the two lives of a garment, before and after its entry into the collections.

From the initial sketch to the catwalk, via fashion photography, and from the museum’s storerooms to the exhibition galleries, it reveals the stages of creation, conservation and restoration that keep this exceptional heritage alive.

Visitors can discover the beauty of the works and objects that contribute to the invention of a fashion piece: drawings, embroidery samples, patterns, model deposits… Enhanced by photography and worn by models of growing fame, clothing becomes the star of fashion shows now conceived as genuine artistic performances.

Presentation A behind-the-scenes immersion reveals the spaces and expertise of true custodians of fashion’s memory, who work to document, store, restore and dress a heritage intended to be passed on to future generations.

Enriched by the extraordinary holdings of the Union française des Arts du Costume (Ufac) and by the donations of many designers, these collections are shown to today’s public through major exhibitions.

Forty iconic silhouettes, magnified in the museum’s nave, offer a walk through four decades of exhibitions that have helped to elevate fashion to the status of a sacred art.

From “Moments de mode” to “Christian Dior, couturier du rêve” or “Les Mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli”, and from “Jouer la lumière” to “La Mécanique des dessous”, they illustrate the diversity of the museum’s approaches, which celebrates the masterpieces of haute couture as well as emerging creation, while questioning the social and cultural role of clothing.