2024.04.04

When Fashion Is Invited to the Museum: A Look at the Resonance of Art & Fashion from the Special Exhibition at Centre Pompidou

An exhibition brilliantly bridging painting and fashion is currently being held in Paris. The special exhibition 'La traversée des apparences – Quand la mode s’invite au Musée' (The Other Side of What is Visible – When Fashion is Invited to the Museum) is being held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art inside Centre Pompidou.

This exhibition showcases the costumes of 17 fashion designers from the 20th and 21st centuries, arranged to match the permanent collection of modern and contemporary art on the 5th floor of the museum. The event invites visitors to enjoy the resonance between painters from 1905 to the 1970s and fashion designers.

The exhibition method is to display a pair of costumes matched to paintings. While the addition of new costumes has completely transformed the exhibition rooms, the affinity with the costumes that were added, as if they had always been on display there, is also shown to us.

The exhibition was curated by Laurence Benaïm, a journalist who wrote a biography of Yves Saint Laurent. This is her first curation since the 'Yves Saint Laurent aux musées' held at the same venue in 2022.

Matching Master Yves Saint Laurent to Matisse

The first thing you are greeted with at the entrance is a collection by Viktor&Rolf from 1993. Its three-dimensionality makes it look like a work of art, even though it is a piece of clothing.

Step into the exhibition room and you are first greeted by Thebe Magugu and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Magugu, who hails from South Africa, is the first African-born designer to win the LVMH Prize. The costume itself also features African motifs, with a depiction of a Tswana mother and child (an ethnic group that lives in southern Africa). However, framed in it, the painting "Woman in front of the Mirror" by German Expressionist Kirchner is clearly echoing.

As you proceed further inside, you encounter a collaboration between Yves Saint Laurent and Henri Matisse.

Yves Saint Laurent once stated, "The most beautiful clothing of a woman is nudity." The costume presented at his 1969 Fall/Winter Haute Couture Collection is matched to Matisse's "La Luxe I." Matisse is a master painter representing the first half of the 20th century, embodying Fauvism. It's a solid pairing between two masters.

The fourth exhibition is a combination of Comme des Garçons and Francis Picabia. The Comme des Garçons costume is from the Fall/Winter 2021-2022 collection, themed 'Landscape of Shadows', mainly in monochrome. The contrast between the black which jumps out at you from Picabia's "Udnie (Young American Girl, The Dance)" and the colorful accents is beautiful.

Next up is a pairing of clothing by Popy Moreni and a painting by Georges Rouault. Moreni's outfit is from the Fall/Winter 1988-1989 collection and resonates with Rouault's "Clown."

Iris van Herpen's Universe Continues with Chagall's Blue

Next, people are welcomed by Charles de Vilmorin's Spring/Summer 2021 Haute Couture Collection.

From this point, the exhibition method changes slightly. Previously the outfits were displayed along the walls, now they are in the center, surrounded by paintings.

Vilmorin, who is currently 27 years old, is a leading designer of the next generation. He was chosen to partner with the works of Sonia Delaunay, who was born in Imperial Russia and worked in Paris. The colors of both attract visitors.

The seventh is Iris van Herpen's 2019 Spring/Summer Haute Couture Collection. The counterpart is Marc Chagall's "Bride and Groom of the Eiffel Tower." The blue costume created by Van Herpen with an image of the universe, and the contrast with the Chagall Blue characteristic of Chagall's work is stunning.

For the last part of the first half of the show, a 2003 haute couture collection from Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa was paired with a dining table and chairs by Marcel Breuer. This interesting curation by Benaïm extends beyond just paintings.