Haute Couture Takes Centre Stage In Musée Du Louvre Exhibition ‘Louvre Couture. Art And Fashion: Statement Pieces’

Louvre Couture. Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces is the Musée du Louvre’s first ever fashion exhibition and features haute couture and accessories from 45 world-renowned fashion houses.

The Museum’s Senior Heritage Curator Olivier Gabet, assisted by Marie Brimicombe, has curated this breathtaking exhibition with a view to exploring connections and resonances with the Louvre’s collection of masterpieces. Haute Couture created by some of the world’s leading fashion designers takes visitors on a visual journey through the history of contemporary fashion from 1960 to 2025 including statement pieces from Alexander McQueen, Azzedine Alaïa, Balmain, Chanel, Chloe, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Dolce e Gabbana, Dries Van Noten, Gareth Pugh, Hubert de Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, JW Anderson, John Galliano, Moschino, Prada, Thom Browne, Iris van Herpen, Loewe, Rabih Kairouz, Versace, Viktor & Rolf and Vivienne Westwood.

More than one hundred different looks and accessories are featured in the exhibition and forty-five of fashion’s most emblematic houses and designers have loaned pieces to the Louvre. Each exhibit has been thoughtfully chosen for its intellectual, emotional or poetic resonance with the history of the decorative arts, outstanding craftsmanship and ornamentation.

Visual comparisons are drawn between unique couture pieces juxtaposed with the historic and rare jewellery, costumes, tapestries, furniture and artefacts that inspired them. A fashion catwalk weaves its way through the grand exhibition rooms of the Musée du Louvre’s Department of Decorative Arts, creating a dialogue between the couture pieces and highlights of the museum’s collections from Byzantium to Second-Empire France via precious Medieval miniatures in gold and ivory, Renaissance-era tapestries, opulent 18th-century period rooms and a collection of armor. The curation of the exhibition creates a dialogue between the couture pieces and historic artefacts and artworks from the Musée du Louvre’s collection and offers an insight into the inspiration behind some of the world’s leading fashion designers.

President-Director of the Musée du Louvre Laurence des Cars explains: “The connections and influences uncovered by this innovative exhibition reveal the historical, artistic and poetic depths of fashion’s relationship with the decorative arts. What’s more, visitors will discover a new way of approaching some of the Louvre’s greatest masterpieces, from Byzantium to the 19th century: through the eyes of the fashion designers of today.’

Paul Cézanne once said that ‘the Louvre is the book from which we learn to read’, and the legendary museum has provided an inexhaustible source of inspiration to artists and designers for centuries. The late Karl Lagerfeld was particularly inspired by the Musée du Louvre’s Decorative Arts collections, for example the Chanel Spring/ Summer 2019 Haute Couture Collection is represented in the exhibition by a jacket embroidered by Lesage with a decorative pattern inspired by an 18th century chest of drawers in the Louvre and skirt embroidered with ostrich feathers by Lemarié Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris.

Countless threads connecting the work of leading fashion designers and art history are woven throughout the exhibition, illustrating the enduring connection between fashion and art. Curator Olivier Gabet talks about the influence of the Musée du Louvre’s collections on the designers featured in the exhibition: “Karl Lagerfeld designed a stunning jacket for Chanel in 2019, with embroidery by Lesage, which featured a pattern drawn from a chest of drawers by Mathieu Criaerd in blue and white vernis Martin. Other times, the couturier has surrounded himself with so many objets that he has come to see them as obvious, organic inspirations, like the ornamental motifs of André-Charles Boulle which appear on a jacket by Hubert de Givenchy. Often, in the end, it is the winds of History, carrying whispers and fantasies from the most epic to the most irenic, that find their way to a designer’s ear: as the decorative arts of the Italian Renaissance did for Maria Grazia Chiuri at Christian Dior, Gothic architecture for Iris van Herpen, reliquary busts for Daniel Roseberry and Schiaparelli, armour for Demna and Balenciaga, medieval tapestry for Marine Serre and Dries Van Noten, Palissy ware for Matthieu Blazy and Bottega Veneta as well as Alexander McQueen, and the delicate crafts of the 18th century for John Galliano, Nicolas Ghesquière and Christian Louboutin. And perhaps a mix of all of these inspirations played their part in the cases of Jonathan Anderson, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Vivienne Westwood. Some of these links have therefore been more freely selected but are no less accurate for it. Museums are houses of knowledge but also places of delight and enjoyment.”

With the exception of the mantles of the Order of the Holy Spirit which were restored by the museum last year, the Louvre doesn’t conserve any garments. However, clothing is depicted throughout the galleries dating back to ancient bas-reliefs through to 18th-century paintings, and textiles form an important part of the Department of Decorative Arts’ collection, with a focus on tapestries and decorative textiles.

Nathalie Crinière designed the exhibition’s scenography to invite visitors on a journey through the worlds of fashion and art, allowing people to amble throughout the galleries and find their own path of discovery to each Haute Couture statement piece. Displayed and curated in historical periods including Byzantium, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the designs are chosen for display in each room according to their relationship with the collection. For example, the Conseil d’État rooms demonstrate the influence of artistic creations from the Grand Siècle, while in the period rooms, while the last part of the exhibition is devoted to the excesses of the 19th century, culminating in the grandeur of the Napoleon III Apartments featuring equally lavish couture designs.

Direct visual connections are made between some of the most iconic fashion designs and treasures from the Museum’s collections, such as André-Charles Boulle’s famous Cabinet with Apollo’s Chariot by (circa 1700), which was a big influence on Hubert de Givenchy’s Autumn/Winter 1990–1991 collection.

Curator Oliver Gabet explains: “The magnificence and excellence of traditional crafts inspired his Autumn/Winter 1990–1991 ’tribute to quality and luxury’ collection. A trouser suit in silk damas brocade with embroidery by Lesage is one of its key pieces. The suit directly echoes the copper and tortoiseshell marquetry of the cabinet, immortalised in a series of photographs which graced the cover of Françoise Mohrt’s book, Le Style Givenchy, in 1998.”

Louvre Couture. Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces is a magical journey through the history of decorative arts and history of fashion, offering proof of the enduring influence of art on fashion designers while emphasising the importance of haute couture as a fine art form itself.

Louvre Couture. Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces is at the Musée du Louvre until 21st July, 2025.