When Gold Is What We Wear

New York Times

26-01-2025

An exhibition celebrating the power and prestige of gold is scheduled to open Feb. 11 at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris. But rather than highlighting the precious metal's value, the show is to focus on sartorial expressions of gold through the ages.
'Au Fil de L'Or' — in English, 'Golden Thread' — is to retrace the art of incorporating gold into women's ceremonial clothing, costumes and other attire across history and geography, including in the Middle East, India, Indonesia, China and Japan (through July 6).
While the skyrocketing cost of gold has roiled the jewelry industry in recent months, the precious metal also has been a popular museum subject of late, with shows such as 'Solid Gold' at the Brooklyn Museum (through July 6) and 'El Dorado: Myths of Gold,' on display last year at the Americas Society in New York City.
In Paris, the exhibition is to examine how gold smithing has been enmeshed with textile-making techniques across millenniums. Displays are to include the oldest known example of gold used on clothing: gold appliqués from 5,000 B.C. that were discovered in what is now the Bulgarian city of Varna. And there is a bit of braid that dates to 3,000 B.C. and came from the palace throne room in the ancient kingdom of Ebla, in what is modern-day Syria.
But not all that glitters among the show's 321 items is actually gold. For example, exhibits include naturally golden-colored silk from Cambodia; sea silk, spun since antiquity from the beard of a large Mediterranean clam; Lurex, a synthetic fiber introduced in the 1970s; and even animal guts. It is the visual impression that matters, said Hana Al Banna-Chidiac, the exhibition's lead curator.
'More than clothing,' she said in an interview, 'it's really the age-old story of gold that we're trying to recount.
'To understand gold, you have to look up, at the universe. Then we see how, once man discovered gold, he did everything in his power to work it into dress, by making it finer, hammering it, winding it around a thread of silk or linen, using gold leaf, affixing it to hides. That leads all the way through to the use of polyester in the 20th century.'
For the exhibition, Ms. Al Banna-Chidiac worked with Magali An Berthon, the show's co-curator and an assistant professor of fashion studies at the American University of Paris, to bring contemporary fashion into the mix.
So along with North African caftans, Indian wedding saris and Japanese Edo-era kimonos will be haute couture looks such as an opulently embroidered tulle and organza evening dress from the Chanel spring 1996 couture collection by Karl Lagerfeld, as well as a jacket and voluminous skirt with mosaic-like rhodoid embellishments from the Dior spring 2004 couture collection by John Galliano.
And the exhibition's official collaborator is Guo Pei, a relative newcomer to the couture scene. The Beijing designer, who shot onto the international stage when Rihanna wore her canary-yellow gown and cape to the 2015 Met Gala, has lent 14 looks to the show, five of which are to be displayed for the first time.
Those pieces include the fully embroidered traditional Chinese bridal gown featured on the exhibition's promotional materials and a sumptuous silk evening dress with a train that, the museum said, required more than 20,000 hours of hand embroidery with gold thread to add hundreds of thousands of sequins, flowers and other embellishments.
Bringing the theme back to Paris, the final exhibition room is to display approximately 50 pieces by Lesage, the embroidery specialist that marked its centennial last year. The creations for fashion houses such as Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Balmain were selected for the way they reflect artisanal traditions in the regions represented in the exhibition.
'Behind the act of wearing gold there's always a story of creativity, talent and ingenuity,' Ms. Al Banna-Chidiac said.