The exhibition unfolds across four time periods — the Byzantine period and Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th and 18th centuries, and the 19th century and France’s Second Empire — with fashion creations placed on mirrored podiums and in glass display cases surrounded by the Louvre’s decorative arts collection.
In one room, a Versace shirt dress is placed in the centre of a reconstruction of Louis XVIII’s bedroom, the brocade hangings mirroring the swirling black-and-gold paisley of the dress. In another, a leaf-motif brocade coat by Dries Van Noten and a dark floral dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior are set against foliage-rich medieval tapestries. Jewel-encrusted Dolce & Gabbana gloves and Chanel cuffs blend nearly seamlessly with Byzantine artefacts, while an imperious high-necked white suit designed for Givenchy by Alexander McQueen stands next to Napoleon’s throne, the bee motif stitched on its dramatic sleeves referencing the French emperor’s coat of arms.
But for all the attention paid to the fashion elements of the exhibition, they are placed relatively sparsely throughout the museum’s collections, with most rooms featuring only a few pieces. For Gabet, this was by design. “I didn’t just want the collection’s objects to be secondary,” he says. “I wanted there to be a context, a conversation, and for visitors to look at the [collection’s] objects in a different way.”
Gabet first became interested in the connection between art and fashion 15 years ago, when he was working with Louvre director Laurence des Cars on the launch of Louvre Abu Dhabi. As part of the project, some of the first acquisitions the Abu Dhabi collection made were of fashion pieces from the 2009 sale of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge’s estate. Later, once des Cars joined the Louvre and Gabet was running the Musee des Arts Decoratifs next door in Paris, the two dreamt up the idea of doing a collaborative project “linked to fashion”, Gabet says. When Gabet was hired by the Louvre in 2022, des Cars quickly gave him the green light.
