The "À LA MODE" exhibition is now in Dijon

For the first time, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon is offering an exhibition of costumes and textiles, which will be confronted with works, objects and graphic arts, in a contextualised, innovative and dynamic scenography. Presented within the museum's permanent tour (1st floor), the exhibition enters into a dialogue not only with the museum's collections, such as the famous Gaulin Room, the original décor of an 18th century mansion by Dijon sculptor Jérôme Marlet, but also with the architecture of the wing of the Palais des États that the Princes of Condé, governors of Burgundy, built before the Revolution to house the Dijon School of Drawing, the initial nucleus of the Fine Arts Museum.

 The history of costume and its representation in the Age of Enlightenment is as much the illustration of a material reality as a creation of the imagination. In the 18th century, the birth of fashion was first and foremost the birth of new professions and a specialised press, and was a sign of the accelerated transformation of society. The French style, carried by both the aristocracy and the urban upper middle class, was imposed in all the courts and cities of Europe. The confrontation of pictorial works with 18th century costumes allows us to explore a new staging of the body, between social demands and the whims of taste. The partnership with the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris allows for a particularly exceptional presentation of numerous textile ensembles and accessories, some of which have been specially restored for the exhibition, due to the rarity, preciousness and fragility of the materials.

The exhibition unfolds in four distinct universes, like so many facets that explore the link between painters and the fashion industry. The first chapter of the exhibition demonstrates the acceleration of fashion phenomena, both in painting and in clothing, in a game of competition between the ruling elites and the rising classes. The second chapter presents painters as actors in the "fashion factory", revealing them to be the true ancestors of couturiers and fashion designers. The third chapter, "Artists' fantasies", explores the links between imaginary pictorial worlds and the clothes that became iconic thanks to them. Finally, the last part, "For a history of negligee-dressed clothes", takes an original look at the growing vogue for negligee in men's and women's clothing, from the dressing gown to the empire dress, from the veils of vestals to the ancient déshabillé.

The exhibition brings together more than 140 objects from the 18th century, from the great French textile museums (Palais Galliera, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, Musée des Tissus de Lyon, Musée de la Toile de Jouy, Musée de la Chemiserie et de l'Élégance Masculine d'Argenton) and the Beaux-Arts museums (Château de Versailles, Louvre, Ecouen, Nantes, Quimper, Tours, Orléans, etc.) 

EXHIBITION CURATORS

Sandrine Champion-Balan, Chief Curator, Head of the Collections Development Unit, Head of the 16th - 18th century collections Museums of Dijon
Adeline Collange-Perugi, Curator, Head of the Ancient Art Collections Musée d'arts de Nantes
Pascale Gorguet Ballesteros, Chief Curator, Head of the 18th century fashion and dolls department Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris

With the contribution of Myriam Fèvre, Head of Graphic Arts for the Museums of Dijon
In exceptional collaboration with the Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, Paris Musées.