Balenciaga,DEMNA GVASALIA,1981(Géorgie), The Collection Prêt-à-Porter, Spring/Summer 2020 Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024. All rights reserved.
In his interview by Tina Isaac-Goize on January 2025 issue of the Vouge Magazine, the curator of the exhibition, Olivier Gabet, he is the new director of the decorative arts department of Louvre Museum, spoke about the making of the exhibition and what the world’s most famous museum brings to fashion—and vice versa.
Jacquemus, Simon Porte Jaquemus, 1990(Salon-de- Provance,France) The Collection prêt-à-porter,Fall/Winter 2023-2024
Photography copyright ,Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024. All rights reserved.
"When I arrived, in 2022, Laurence des Cars (Louvre president-director) and I spoke a lot about all the programming we do around contemporary creation. We have choreographers, theater people, writers, painters, residencies, and I said we can’t have all these creatives and not make fashion a part of it. Fashion has to be here: it’s a major means of artistic expression today. It also makes sense because we have longstanding ties with fashion, whether through shows staged here by houses like Louis Vuitton and Dior or acquisitions and renovations that have been supported by the private sector, notably LVMH and Kering.That said, the Louvre exists a bit above the fray."*1
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, Lee Alexander Mcqueen, 1969-2010 (Great Britain),The Collection "Plato's Atlantis" Pret-à-Porter, Spring/Summer 2010.
Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024. All rights reserved.
"We don’t need more visitors: we have almost 9 million a year. But fashion can change how people look at us. Even if we are talking about haute couture and extravagant prices, fashion is part of today’s popular culture, of visual culture. Lots of people feel in phase with fashion, and this is a way of inviting them in and letting them discover that they’re in phase with the museum, too."*1
*1-(Fashion curator Olivier Gabet interviewed by Tina Isaac-Goize in the January 2025 issue of the Vouge magazine.)
LOEWE,Jonathan Anderson 1984, (Great Britain ),The Collection Prêt -à-Porter, Fall/winter 2024-2025 Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
Over an area of almost 9,000 square metres, 65 designs and a range of accessories will be on show, highlighting the close historical dialogue that continues between the world of fashion and the great masterpieces of the department, from Byzantium to the Second Empire.
THOM BROWNE, Thom Browne, 1965, (USA),The Collection Prêt-à-Porter, Spring/Summer 2020
Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
The big surprise of the exhibition is FREEDOM : most people's perception of the museum is the phenomenon of institutional rigidity. With this exhibition, the Louvre has broken the rules and allowed the public to discover the institution in a popular, contemporray and very surprising way.
CHRISTIAN DIOR, John Galliano, 1960 (Great Britain) , The Collection Haute Couture, Spring/Summer 2005 Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
There's no classic itinerary in this exhibition, just an invitation to wander. Visitors sail from one era to the next as inspiration takes them.
CHRISTIAN DIOR,John Galliano, 1960,(Great Britain) The Collection Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2005 Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
Visitors head to Byzantium and the Middle Ages, where the most precious works - gold, ivory and precious stones - are reflected in sublime silhouettes, proudly perched on mirrored catwalks that give the museum's galleries a catwalk feel. In the Renaissance rooms, majestic tapestries, glazed ceramics and finely crafted suits of armour also act as accomplices to the designer pieces.
From Balenciaga's 50th Anniversary Couture Collection by DEMNA, a magnificient black pantsuit in a heavy technical tweed with lacquered dome hat, Fall 2021. (It was actually my very favorite.)
Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
The exhibition explores this richness with passion. The Louvre doesn't keep clothes - apart from a few historic pieces such as the cloaks of the Order of the Holy Spirit - but its galleries are overflowing with textile inspiration. Designers make no mistake: for them, the museum is a veritable open-air workshop where every detail can become a source of inspiration.
SCHIAPARELLI,Daniel Roseberry, 1985, (Great Britain) The Collection "Inferno", Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2023
Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
The magic of this exhibition also lies in the scenography entrusted to Nathalie Crinière, a virtuoso of detail. Having already enhanced the Galerie Dior and the exhibitions for Elsa Schiaparelli and Iris van Herpen, here she sublimates the interaction between fashion and art with an immersive staging in which each piece finds its own light.
BOTTEGA VENETA ,Matthieu Blazy,1984, Paris France, Collection Prêt-à-Porter Fall/Winter 2023-2024
Photography copyright, Nazli Kok Akbas NKA Art Reports Switzerland-France-Istanbul Photography 2024 . All rights reserved.
Exhibition hosts visitors until 21 July.
Nazli Kok Akbas Art Reports, Paris, 9 February.
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