Latest news with #MuséedesArtsDécoratifs
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Art Deco: 100 years since the Paris exhibition that revolutionised modern design
On 28 April 1925, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts opened in Paris. It was a landmark event in the evolution of art, architecture and design, and aroused great interest both for the works on display and for their impact. In interwar Spain, it was the most widely publicised event in architecture magazines, coinciding with a shift in the focus of these publications towards interior design and furniture. The exhibition has been a source of interest and inspiration ever since the Second World War, and the abundance of published works on it is a testament to its continued significance. It marked a turning point in the aesthetic conception of the period, one that deliberately sought to distance itself from historicism and emphasise originality and novelty in both artistic and industrial creations. The Paris Exhibition's lengthy gestation process generated great expectation. In 1911, René Guilleré, president of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, proposed an international event that would reaffirm French supremacy in design, especially in the face of German competition. Approved in 1912, its celebration was originally slated for 1915. However, it was delayed by the First World War, and did not actually occur until 1925. Throughout this period, the exhibition was widely advertised in the press and specialist magazines, creating the opportunity to produce a new style. The idea of innovation was reflected in the exhibition's guidelines, which required works to be previously unpublished, and excluded any reproduction of historical styles. Its fourth article expressly stated that only works of 'new inspiration and real originality' would be accepted, prohibiting copies and imitations from the past. While it aimed to encourage a new aesthetic language in line with social and technological change, this guideline sparked debate over the interpretation of 'modern'. The lack of clear criteria led to arbitrary decisions. The exhibition therfore became a scene of tension between designers who embraced the radical avant-garde and those that, without renouncing modernity, maintained certain links with traditional styles. For more conservative architects and designers, the show represented the culmination of a style that had been in the making since the beginning of the 20th century. It was instrumental in the international dissemination of the '1925 style' as it was then known. It was only in 1966, at the retrospective exhibition 'Les Années 25', held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, that this style became known as Art Deco. Most of the French and other European pavilions interpreted modernity as an expression of the style of the time, often fused with local elements. The Spanish pavilion was a prime example: designed by Pascual Bravo, it drew clear inspiration from the traditional styles of Andalusia. Although the exhibition excluded historical styles, folk art – along with a range of other references such as exoticism, cubism, French neoclassicism and machinery – was incorporated into many projects. This demonstrated the diversity of approaches within Art Deco, where low-relief decoration and geometric motifs predominated. However, the avant-gardists considered that the exhibition reinforced a decorative approach far removed from true modernity. The Belgian architect Auguste Perret, for instance, claimed that real art did not require decoration. For his part, Swiss architect Le Corbusier's book L'Art décoratif d'aujourd'hui (The Decorative Art of Today), criticised the notion of a 'modern decorative art', and stated that true modernity should not include ornamentation – an idea that the Austrian Adolf Loos had already put forward years earlier. Indeed, the Le Corbusier-designed L'Esprit Nouveau pavillion clashed with the exhibition's predominant Art Deco style, as did Konstantin Melnikov's Soviet pavilion and Aleksandr Rodchenko's workers' canteen. These works shocked the public and critics by presenting a radically different vision of modernity. One hundred years after its inauguration, the Paris Exhibition remains a milestone in the history of design. Its impact transcended the purely aesthetic, and it consolidated Art Deco as the one of the century's great decorative styles. It also served as a stage for the emergence of the Modern movement, whose rationalist ideas would transform the design of the future. Later examples of Deco's influence included the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and chairs designed by Jacques Émile Ruhlmann, while Modern design gave us the clean lines of the Ville Savoye, the Bauhaus building in Dessau and furniture by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The coexistence of these two visions in the exhibition highlighted a key debate that still resonates today: the balance between tradition and innovation in design. Beyond its role in defining styles, the exhibition raised fundamental questions about the relationship between art and industry, the function of ornament, and the need to connect design with social demands. These tensions are still relevant today, where the challenges of combining creativity and industrial production persist. The 1925 exhibition was therefore not only a showcase for the aesthetic change of its time, but a pivotal moment that continues to inspire contemporary design. Its legacy invites us to reflect on the nature of modernity, and how it evolves over time. Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en The Conversation, un sitio de noticias sin fines de lucro dedicado a compartir ideas de expertos académicos. Lee mas: Bauhaus and The Brutalist: the revolutionary immigrant architects whose stories inspired the film Balenciaga and the influence of abstract art The New Yorker at 100: how bold, illustrated and wordless covers helped define the iconic magazine This article is part of the DISARQ project 'Aportaciones desde la arquitectura a la teoría, la pedagogía y la divulgación del diseño español (1925-1975)' ('Architecture's contributions to the theory, pedagogy and dissemination of Spanish design, 1925-1975') (PID2023-153253NA-I00), financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 FEDER, EU. María Villanueva Fernández y Héctor García-Diego Villarías are the project's lead researchers. Héctor García-Diego Villarías receives public funding for the DISARQ research project, which were obtained through a competitive open call.
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Inside Fashion's Mysterious Silly Hat Festival
Every year on or around the 25th of November, the French fashion industry hosts a kind of runway show just for itself. Wearing mostly green-and-yellow hats — the color combination is said to represent either family and hope or faith and wisdom, depending on which milliner you ask — young people from the Parisian luxury houses gather at City Hall to celebrate St. Catherine's Day, a Catholic holiday dating to the Middle Ages that was first observed by the couture industry in the late 19th century. Historically, the Catherinettes, as they're known — single women, each 25 years old and working in one of the city's then-dozens of haute couture ateliers — were granted a rare opportunity to meet their bosses before getting the rest of the day off to enjoy street parties, all while wearing opulent, often garish hats that were sometimes personalized to represent their individual skills or interests, or at least their house's codes. (In the late 1940s, Schiaparelli's Catherinettes wore oversize versions of the designer Elsa Schiaparelli's surreal fragrance bottles in the shape of suns and candlesticks.) Though only midway through their 20s, the Catherinettes were already considered spinsters, and their hats sent a clear message: 'I'm available,' says Sophie Kurkdjian, an assistant professor of fashion history at the American University of Paris. 'And I'm looking for a husband.' She likens the tradition to Tinder for the petites mains, or 'little hands,' as the generally anonymous artisans responsible for sewing and embroidering the world's most exquisite gowns are known. The Catherinettes' patron saint is Catherine of Alexandria, a skilled debater who died in the fourth century and who, according to legend, converted pagan scholars to Christianity and refused to wed a Roman emperor. (She's also believed to watch over scholars and students.) More than a mating ritual, though — one that was practiced across France long before it was adopted by the fashion industry — St. Catherine's Day was also a 'bonding experience,' says Pamela Golbin, formerly the chief curator of fashion and textiles at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. 'Today it would be considered a team-building exercise.' Men from the houses eventually adopted a parallel tradition in honor of St. Nicholas, another patron saint of many, including those looking to wed, who once purportedly paid the dowries for three unmarried sisters by secretly tossing gold into their father's home. They celebrated on St. Nicholas's feast day, Dec. 6, and enjoyed five additional years of shame-free singledom, becoming Nicholases at 30. Two years ago, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the governing body of Paris Fashion Week, which had long heard complaints about the holiday's 'antifeminism,' decided that participants no longer had to be unmarried, says its executive president, Pascal Morand. It also lowered the age for Nicholases to 25. The rule change affected people like Victor Weinsanto, a 30-year-old French designer who started his own label in 2020 and has now missed his opportunity to be feted as a Nicholas. He had appreciated the tradition since his internship at Chloé, where he'd watched Catherinettes receive handbags with their hats. (Along with the hats, which participants can keep, many houses provide additional gifts: Balenciaga, for example, offers full outfits.) Nevertheless, Weinsanto still relishes the spectacle from a distance. 'It's a moment where you can have some freedom about taste,' he says, recalling the large feathered hats worn last November by employees of Hermès, a brand not especially known for its flamboyance. At City Hall, the participants — about 400, many dressed in black, representing 17 houses as well as the federation itself — modeled their colorful hats in a private fashion show, with each brand having chosen its own music. (Hermès opted for Sabrina Carpenter's 'Espresso'; Patou went with a Lil Wayne song.) For a competitive industry that generally takes itself quite seriously, the event is a goofy anomaly and rare moment of unity. And yet the ceremony isn't without a bit of good-natured one-upmanship: The Catherinettes' hats are often designed by the house's creative director, but some revelers at City Hall had added personal touches; an employee of the millinery Maison Michel affixed a wooden stake to theirs to reflect their passion for the TV series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' Others attached rhinestones or felt Chanel logos to their hats, the same way American college students might customize their graduation caps. The Catherinettes and Nicholases, who now both celebrate in November, no longer come from only the world of couture, which means that employees from any of the 100 or so houses in the federation can participate. (These days, only 14 of those maisons still make haute couture: custom garments produced entirely by hand and requiring at least four full-time tailors and seamstresses.) Nor must they make clothes at all. Among Balenciaga's 23 participants last year, there were employees from its retail stores and corporate departments. (The brand, known for its subversion and streetwear, dressed its staff in black baseball caps designed by its creative director, Demna, with green and yellow on the brims.) Delphine Bellini, the chief executive of Schiaparelli, sees it as a moment to 'pass the baton between the senior experts and the young talents,' and an opportunity to impress upon the company's next generation the importance of craftsmanship. 'I have to admit that I'd rather represent the modern interpretations of the tradition than the old ones,' says Emma Spreckley, a press assistant and recent Catherinette at Dior, which had 68 celebrants in 2024. Each year on a Friday around the holiday, the house throws a lavish ball for its team — not just any corporate office gathering but an extravagant cocktail party attended by its creative directors, along with Delphine Arnault, the chief executive of Dior fashion, and her father, Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of Dior's parent company, LVMH. (Everyone at Dior gets the following Monday off.) 'It's our most important meeting of the year,' says the British milliner Stephen Jones, who learned about the Catherinettes when he was hired at Dior in 1996. He acknowledges some mystery around the tradition — outside New Orleans, which hosts a small neighborhood hat parade to acknowledge St. Catherine's Day, the celebration is unfamiliar to most Americans, even those who work in fashion. Multiple houses and designers were reluctant to say too much about the custom — almost as if it were a secret. 'Some things are meant to be kept private,' Jones says. 'When you buy a Dior haute couture dress, what are you buying? You're buying a dress, but you're also buying privacy — something that's just for you, not anybody else.' To him, the event is about the pride fashion takes in its artisans: The hats he designed for this year's event, inspired by the brand's resort 2025 collection, were made by the Scottish knitwear manufacturer Robert Mackie. 'In the United States, they celebrate sports heroes or military heroes,' says Jones. 'In France, they celebrate dressmaking and fashion design.'
See - Sada Elbalad
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
The Louvre Hosts Its First Fashion Show
The Louvre in Paris opened ' Louvre Couture, Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces,' the first fashion exhibition at the famed Paris museum in its 231-year history, seeking to draw new, younger audiences amid national concern about conditions inside the landmark art destination. The exhibition, which will run until July 21, 2025, will showcase 70 fashion garments and 30 accessories from 45 fashion houses and designers. Clothing lovers of Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga — revealing an unprecedented dialogue between art and fashion from the 1960s to today. They have lent the museum 100 ensembles and accessories, which are arrayed not among the Louvre's famous paintings and marble sculptures but throughout the nearly 100,000 square feet of rooms and galleries. While this is the first time the Louvre has exhibited fashion garments, clothing is omnipresent in its galleries, from Vermeer's 'The Lacemaker' to Ingres' nude, turban-wearing 'Grand Odalisque.' What is worn — or not worn — has always been a central component of the creation and reception of art. Two weeks before the Louvre opened its exhibition on January 24, Dolce & Gabbana opened a fashion spectacle of its own: 'From the Heart to the Hands,' in the newly renovated Grand Palais. First opening in Milan last spring, the traveling costume retrospective features more than 200 creations of the house within immersive video installations and elaborate sets. But this is not a museum exhibition. 'This is an experience that is primarily joyful,' said Florence Müller, the creative director of the exhibition. 'It is secondarily intellectual. It is not meant to be in a museum.' Next month, the Musée du Quai Branly, a collection of African, Oceanic, American and Asian works, will open 'Golden Thread,' an exhibition focusing on the art of using gold to adorn clothing and jewelry. In May, the Petit Palais, which belongs to the city of Paris, will mount 'Worth: The Birth of Haute Couture,' a retrospective of the life and work of the British designer Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895). Two fashion museums, one with collections belonging to the state (the Musée des Arts Décoratifs), the other to the city (Palais Galliera), have long featured dazzling permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. More recently, luxury groups like LVMH and Kering have opened their own art exhibition spaces. Saint Laurent, Dior, and Alaïa have all created permanent spaces to show their work. 'Museums and fashion have been dancing with each other for decades,' said Pamela Golbin, the former chief curator of fashion and textiles at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. 'Now there's a real rapprochement. It is not always a successful pairing, but if it triggers an interest from the public — if it can see the art differently — it's a great way to use the power of fashion.' 'It's very important for the Louvre to continue to open itself up to new generations and to make its own small contribution to understanding today's world. That is exactly what this exhibition does,' said Laurence des Cars, the museum's president, in an interview at the Louvre. The collection weaves the threads between fashion and a diverse array of 'art objects' — including tapestries, ceramics, portraits, sculptures, and the layout of the Louvre's galleries themselves. Visitors are invited to flâner — or wander aimlessly, as the French saying goes — through the museum and discover its less popular collections. 'The Louvre is so much more than just the 'Mona Lisa',' Olivier Gabet, the museum's director of art objects as well as the exhibition's curator, said. A fashionable exchange While painter Paul Cézanne once observed that 'the Louvre is the book in which we learn to read,' for fashion designers, the museum is the 'ultimate mood board,' observed Gabet. From Lagerfeld to Alexander McQueen, designers have long been inspired by the wealth of collections displayed at the world's biggest museum. Some, like Christian Louboutin, shared with Gabet childhood memories of days spent in its halls. Others, like Yves Saint Laurent, were themselves great art connoisseurs and collectors. For Gabet, the personal relationship between the designers and the Louvre was the starting point for the exhibition. It's a connection epitomized by the Dior silhouette that opens the exhibition, said Gabet. Entitled, 'Musée du Louvre,' Gabet said that, to his knowledge, it is the 'only piece in the history of haute couture to be named after a museum. The exhibition pays homage to major historical periods, inviting visitors to rediscover the Louvre's artifacts through the prism of contemporary designers. Highlights include a crystal-embroidered Dolce & Gabbana dress inspired by 11th-century mosaics from Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello, Venice. A spectacular silk Dior gown featuring a Sun King motif is staged before a baroque portrait of Louis XIV himself. Iconic pieces such as Gianni Versace's 1997 metal mesh gown — previously displayed at the 2018 'Heavenly Bodies' Met Gala exhibition — are also on display. The garment took two of the atelier's seamstresses more than 600 hours — or 25 days — to stitch by hand and is embellished with Swarovski crystals, golden embroidery featuring Byzantine crosses and Versace's signature draping inspired by Ancient Greek peplum dresses. The gown inspired both Kim Kardashian's gold Versace dress at the 2018 Met Gala and Donatella Versace's iconic 'Tribute' collection the same year, which featured five of the original supermodels: Naomi Campbell, Carla Bruni, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Helena Christensen. Details Sometimes, designers' references to objects in the Louvre are literal. Karl Lagerfeld's 2019 collection for Chanel, for instance, featured a striking embroidered jacket whose motif is drawn from an 18th-century blue and white chest by cabinet maker Mathieu Criaerd. Lagerfeld, who considered the Louvre his 'second studio,' sketched his initial designs for the dress on a museum catalog featuring the chest, before sending the final version to the Chanel atelier. Glamour can even be found in the Middle Ages, with armour-style dresses transforming models into modern Joan of Arcs. French actress Brigitte Bardot was famously photographed by David Bailey in a 1967 Paco Rabanne chainmail tunic, which is featured in the exhibition next to a 3D-printed armour Balenciaga gown. More often, the broad sweep of history serves as recurrent inspiration for designers, such as Italian Renaissance paintings for Maria Grazia Chiuri at Christian Dior, Medieval tapestries for Dries van Noten, or 18th-century delicacies evoked by John Galliano and Christian Louboutin. Amidst the Paris Fashion Week, 'Louvre Couture' offers a source of inspiration for designers and visitors alike, illuminating the ongoing dialogue between art and fashion. 'The exhibition is not here to say that fashion is or isn't art,' Gabet concluded. 'Fashion is about creation. The artistic culture shared between great designers — that's the leitmotif of the collection.' And this is just the beginning of the conversation. In March, the famed Parisian museum will host hundreds of guests for the Grand Dîner, an event that is already being referred to as the first French Met Gala.
