Fashion in museums

With exceptional guests Lio Sulanowski, contemporary artistJuliette Breyault, fashion designerCyrielle Marchand, head curator of the MET Costume Institute

Does fashion belong in museums ?

1944 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, curated by Bernard Rudofsky : "Are clothes modern ?"

XVIIIth century robe à la française, Paris, palais Galliera

Iris Van Herpen, Crystallization, 2010, Paris, musée des Arts Décoratifs

"A work of art is an object which exists as such only by virtue of the collective belief which knows and acknowledges it as a work of art."(Pierre Bourdieu)

"Fashion to me is not art because it is only valid if it is lived in and worn. I make clothes and bags and shoes for people to use, not to put up on a wall and look at. I think clothes in a museum are complete death."(Marc Jacobs)

• Art should challenge societal norms

• Fashion exhibits steal space away from real art

• Commercial strategies deprived of any artistic meaning

Elsa Schiaparelli in collaboration with maison Lesage, Zodiac Jacket, 1937

Rei Kawakubo, "Dress Meets Body : Body Meets Dress" spring/summer 1997

John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Bolt, 1882, oil on canvas.

Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld, haute couture spring/summer 1984

XVIIIth century imperial chinese porcelain vase

Charles Frederick Worth, Ballgown, circa 1887

Challenges of a fashion exhibit :

• Uprooting works of art from their intended context

• A limited experience

Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty (2011)