Three fashion giants are on show in Paris at the moment! Cristobal Balenciaga, Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garçons and Louis Vuitton-Marc Jacobs: three eras, three styles, but the same desire to revolutionize the fashion of their age.

The Cristobal Balenciaga, collector of fashion exhibition is being held at the Cité de la Mode et du Design. Once again, it is not a retrospective but rather an astonishing immersion in the world of Balenciaga and his inspirations.

Cristobal Balenciaga private collection, Collar circa 1895

 

Balenciaga, dress and jacket suit 1968

You will find a collection of highly varied pieces displayed in open drawers or worn by dummies the length of a gallery, all accompanied by sketches from the hand of the artist in this moving and intimate exhibition. A way of getting a little closer to the “only real couturier”, according to Mademoiselle Chanel.

“Cristobal Balenciaga, collector of fashion”
From April 13 to October 7, 2012
Les Docks – Cité de la mode et du design
34 quai d’Austerlitz - 75 013 Paris
http://www.paris-docks-en-seine.fr/musee-galliera-hors-les-murs.html

You can also take the opportunity to look round the “Comme des Garçons White Drama” exhibition that is being held in the same venue, where you will find the label’s entire Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Rei Kawakubo (the brand’s founder) has designed this exhibition like an installation so that you can get as close as possible to the clothes and observe them in detail. They are all-white monochrome designs, white being a highly symbolic color representing the major stages of life: birth, marriage, death and transcendence. When fashion and spirituality meet…

The Louis Vuitton-Marc Jacobs exhibition is being held in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs from March 9 to September 16. Apart from the fact that Marc Jacobs has been Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for 15 years now, both men share the priceless quality of having been able to adapt to the major turning points in the History of Fashion: 19^th-century industrialization for one and 21^st-century globalization for the other.

This exhibition compares these two figures through an analysis of their work rather than a retrospective. The portraits of the two men are outlined in an original staging. At first, we walk in the footsteps of Louis Vuitton who, packer and trunk-maker, transformed his business into a luxury house in step with technical innovations and through an intelligent partnership with Worth, the pioneer of Haute Couture. We then discover the world of Marc Jacobs, his craziest bags and most striking ready-to-wear designs, the whole setting bathed in a colorful pop culture atmosphere.

Here is a little private tour of the show to find out a little bit more!

Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs
From March 9 to September 16, 2012
Musée des Arts Décoratifs,
107 rue de Rivoli, Paris 1st
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/accueil-292/une-486/francais/mode-et-textile/expositions-70/actuellement-447/louis-vuitton-marc-jacobs/

Happy fashion (re)discoveries!