On 24 January 2025, couture arrived at the Louvre with the ‘LOUVRE COUTURE. Art and fashion: statement pieces’ exhibition. A fresh and fascinating dialogue between masterworks from the Department of Decorative Arts and key pieces from the history of contemporary fashion from 1960 to 2025, the exhibition includes work by designers ranging from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Iris van Herpen. Visitors will embark on a journey into the heart of the museum’s collections over a space of almost 9,000 square metres. The exhibition features over a hundred different looks and accessories: each item has been selected for its intellectual, emotional or poetic resonance with the history of the decorative arts, shifting styles, craftsmanship and ornamentation in order to illustrate the close ties between fashion and art. For the first time, forty-five of fashion’s most emblematic houses and designers have loaned pieces to the Louvre.
Image above: Expo LOUVRE COUTURE, Balenciaga © Musée du Louvre – Nicolas Bousser.
Paul Cézanne once said that ‘the Louvre is the book from which we learn to read’. This same inexhaustible wellspring of inspiration has also nourished one of contemporary art’s liveliest domains: the world of fashion. Increasingly, research and monographs on great designers has begun to draw aesthetic ‘family trees’, rooting these figures and their inspirations in a historical and artistic context. The pattern that emerges not only shows disruptions, with various degrees of radical innovation, and changes from season to season: it also reveals the impact of inspirations and references. The threads that stretch between the work of great fashion figures and the art world are nearly numberless. The history of art as presented by the Louvre, through the dazzling depth and abundance of its collection, also offers visitors a rich glimpse into how tastes have changed over different periods. In many ways, the museum is a vast mood board: a source of endless inspirations and influences.
Although the Louvre paradoxically does not conserve any garments, with the exception of the sumptuous mantles of the Order of the Holy Spirit which were restored last year, clothing is depicted throughout its galleries, from ancient bas-reliefs to 18th-century paintings. Textiles are a vital part of the Department of Decorative Arts’ collection, although the focus is on tapestries and decorative textiles rather than clothing. How did the museum and the objets d’art it holds become a repository of design inspiration? How did the Louvre’s collection encourage and inspire the work of some of the greatest designers in the world? How does this collection continue to act as a source of inspiration today? The Louvre is attempting to answer these questions by highlighting known connections and drawing new ones: the department owes part of its collection to the generosity of great fashion figures, from Jacques Doucet to Madame Carven.
The stitches sewing together the history of art and the history of fashion are countless. Both often use the same methods and craftsmanship, the same knowledge of ancestral techniques, the same visual culture, the same subtle interplay of references, from the museum’s catalogue raisonné to fashion’s mood boards which bring together all kinds of inspirations: the gems on a pyxis form the border of a jacket, armour becomes a dress, a pattern on a piece of Boulle furniture or a chest of drawers is re-imagined as embroidery… in each new connection, the poetry of an era takes shape. As if holding a mirror up to the museum, this exhibition invites us to take a fresh look at the decorative arts through the sharp and often enlightening eyes of contemporary designers.
Designed by Nathalie Crinière, it is intended to take visitors on a journey through the worlds of art and fashion, inviting them to wander freely rather than follow a traditional pathway. The exhibition is structured around several main historical periods, which visitors are free to explore in or out of chronological order. In the section on Byzantium and the Middle Ages, precious artworks made from gold, ivory and gemstones are reflected in the looks on display, majestically presented on mirrored podiums. In a similar scenographic vein, the designs shown in the rooms devoted to the Renaissance echo other types of artworks: richly enamelled ceramics, finely decorated armour, and impressively large and colourful tapestries.
The Conseil d’État rooms reveal the ever-present influence of artistic créations from the Grand Siècle, while in the period rooms, where 18th-century pieces are displayed, dresses, ensembles and accessories are shown against a backdrop of the eras which inspired their creation. The final part of the exhibition is devoted to the excesses of the 19th century. The Napoleon III Apartments serve as a grand finale, where the grandeur and splendour of the décor is echoed by the exuberant shapes and colours of the designs on display.
Exhibition curators: Olivier Gabet, Senior Heritage Curator, Director of the Department of Decorative Arts at the Musée du Louvre, assisted by Marie Brimicombe.
45 Fashion houses and designers:
Amsterdam: Iris van Herpen, Viktor&Rolf
Antwerp: Dries Van Noten
Florence: Gucci Archive
London: Alexander McQueen, Duro Olowu, Erdem, Gareth Pugh, JW Anderson, Vivienne Westwood
Milan: Bottega Veneta, Dolce&Gabbana, Moschino Archive, Prada, Versace
New York: Thom Browne
Paris: Alaïa, Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Archives Balenciaga, Maison Balmain, Carven, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Patrimoine de Chanel, Charles de Vilmorin, Patrimoine Chloé, Dior Héritage, Giambattista Valli, Givenchy, Conservatoire des créations Hermès, Jacquemus, Jean Paul Gaultier, Loewe Archives, Louboutin, Collection Louis Vuitton, Archives Maison Margiela, Marine Serre, Archives Mugler, Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Patrimoine et Archives Rabanne, Rabih Kayrouz, Rick Owens, Maison Schiaparelli, Yohji Yamamoto
Rome: Fendi
Tokyo: Undercover
WHEN?
Friday, 24. January until Sunday, 24. August 2025
Opening hours:
Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 9 am until 6 pm
Wednesday and Friday: 9 am until 9 pm
Closed on Tuesday
WHERE?
Musée du Louvre
75001 Paris, France
COSTS?
Admission: 22 EUR
