Couture in Context

Christian Dior’s “New Look” needs no introduction—the hourglass silhouette revolutionized post-war fashion. The designer’s 1949 homage to the Louvre, a white silk evening gown with black appliqué and an iconically cinched waist, brings this influence full circle as it opens the museum’s first-ever fashion exhibition dedicated to the long-lasting connection between fashion and French history. 

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Titled “Louvre Couture: Art objects, fashion objects,” the exhibition opens this week and runs through July 21, 2025, in the museum’s Department of Decorative Arts. Curated by Olivier Gabet, the Louvre’s senior heritage curator and department director, it features approximately 100 pieces from 45 fashion houses across the world, staged in dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection. 

Designers have long drawn inspiration from the Louvre. Beyond Dior, Yves Saint Laurent famously spent hours in its galleries, with his 1960s collections deeply inspired by his visits. He later staged his monumental Fall/Winter 1998 Haute Couture show in the Louvre’s oldest courtyard, the Cour Carrée. Then there’s Karl Lagerfeld, who knew the museum’s holdings by heart, and Hubert de Givenchy who too roamed its winding halls throughout his lifetime. In more recent years, visionaries like the late Virgil Abloh and Nicolas Ghesquière have also debuted collections on its grounds.

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Despite countless connections to designers throughout its history, and fashion permeating its walls, the Louvre has never explored fashion’s relationship to art in this way. This groundbreaking effort could have included hundreds of couture creations, but instead, Gabet focused on parallels between specific pieces and objects in the Louvre’s collection. 

Each piece is in conversation with the department’s archive of tapestries, textiles, statues, historical garments, and jewelry depicting style throughout the ages. Arranged chronologically, Ready-to-Wear and accessories are sprinkled on the first floor of the Richelieu Wing amongst suits of armor, ivories, jewels, goldsmithing, bronzes, cabinetry, porcelains, and other ornamentations. It’s easy to get lost, but that feels like part of the fun.

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Take, for example, the second garment featured: a sleek, gold mesh evening dress, embroidered with crosses from Gianni Versace’s final 1999 collection. Inspired by his 1997 visit to the Met’s “Glory of Byzantium” exhibition, the dress is a bridge that spans geography and time, symbolically marrying the sacred with the sartorial. Nearby, Byzantine treasures shimmer with a similar sanctity. 

There are countless moments like this. A few rooms in, a 2006 silk ball gown by John Galliano for Dior echoes the baroque pomp of the Louis XIV period, while prototypes by Crístobal Balenciaga channel the designer’s fascination with 17th-century Spanish painting and sculptural geometry.

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Gabet also includes pieces from British and American designers such as Alexander McQueen, Thom Browne, and Vivienne Westwood; contemporary voices such as JW Anderson, Pieter Mulier, and Mathieu Blazy; and independent figures like Iris Van Herpen, Jacquemus, and Marine Serre. The result is an awe-inspiring first for the Louvre, inviting visitors to view its collections in a new light.

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As Paris’ attention shifts towards couture, the opening of this exhibition may reignite the wonder that only fashion can inspire—a feeling that seemed just within reach with Galliano’s SS24 couture show for Margiela nearly a year ago. After all, Paris remains the fashion vanguard of the world.

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“Louvre Couture: Art objects, fashion objects,” is on view until July 21, 2025 at the Louvre, 8 rue Sainte-Anne, 75001 Paris. 

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