Fashion Icons: Masterpieces from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

Fashion Icons - Installation Dolce and Gabbana_editorialOver 100 emblematic haute couture garments created by France’s leading fashion designers will feature in a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia from October 2014.

Exclusive to Adelaide, Fashion Icons: Masterpieces from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris will be drawn from the most comprehensive collection of French fashion in the world, the Musée des Arts décoratifs and curated by the museum’s Chief Curator of 20th and 21st Centuries Fashion and Textile, Pamela Golbin.

Internationally renowned, Golbin has curated ground-breaking exhibitions worldwide including Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs, Madeleine Vionnet: Puriste de la mode and Valentino Retrospective: Past/Present/Future. She will be joined on this project by acclaimed French designer and architect Christian Biecher, who will realise the design of the exhibition.

Fashion Icons will paint a unique picture of Parisian style within the context of contemporary fashion design since 1947 when the couturier Christian Dior re-launched Haute Couture with his New Look. From that time fashion design blossomed with the lavish splendour of the 1950s, the futurist dynamism of the 1960s, the inspired emancipation of the 1970s, the unbridled excess of the 1980s, and the pure minimalism of the 1990s, all inspiring today’s composite portrait of the 21st century.

Ms Golbin explains “The works selected for this exhibition perfectly illustrate the style of each of the mythical couturiers behind this history of luxury and sumptuousness. Spectacular designs by Cristobal Balenciaga, Gabrielle Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent follow one another in this chronological review, revealing the universality of fashion viewed as a history of art and beauty.”

Les Arts Décoratifs Director, Olivier Gabet said “It is with great pleasure that I announce our collaboration with the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide for the Fashion Icons exhibition.”

“I am delighted to bring this exhibition to Australia where the Musée des Arts Décoratifs has already successfully exhibited the Valentino Restrospective Past/Present/Future at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane in 2010 with the assistance of Art Exhibitions Australia.”

“This new show is a unique presentation which will bring together and unveil for the first time some of the most iconic masterpieces of the history of fashion kept in our collections. Starting with the world renowned New Look of Christian Dior, the exhibition will reveal the extraordinary rebirth of fashion after World War II until the present time.”

“We are proud and honoured to have the opportunity to share, once again, the best of our collections with the Australian audience.”

Art Gallery of South Australia Director, Nick Mitzevich said “It is a privilege to be working with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, esteemed curator Pamela Golbin and international designer Christian Biecher to bring the best of French fashion to Australia.”

“We anticipate that an exhibition of this calibre and content will have broad cross-generational appeal and provide inspiration to the Australian fashion industry.”

Fashion Icons: Masterpieces from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Art Gallery of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide
Exhibition: 25 October – 15 February 2015
Entry fees apply

For more information, visit: www.artgallery.sa.gov.au for details.

Image: Installation view Dolce and Gabbana, Spring-Summer 2009, from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris