The show detailing link between art & history of fashion

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion), highlights the links between this 19th-century artistic movement and the history of fashion.

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

They knew how to express the movement of the flowers and the trees, how to capture the light of the rivers and the forests.  They saw nature as a separate and individual model, sensitive and alive, and rendered it in the colors they felt rather than academically saw. They made of the instantaneous and the ephemeral a source of eternal inspiration. 

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

They were named Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Gustave Caillebotte and, through the prism of their emotions and impressions, they managed to distill the reality of their time, of the sweeping economic and industrial changes, and the attitudes of their contemporaries. It's this reciprocally inspirational relationship between the Impressionists and fashion that the Musée d'Orsay is exploring, with an important, and ravishingly beautiful, exhibition is already started on September 25 that runs until January 20, 2013. 

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

From fashion magazines of the time to portraits by Edouard Manet and Auguste Renoir, it draws attention to the highly important role played by clothing in the understanding of a specific era. More than simply an authentic recording, these painters working in the 19th century (with works spanning the decades 1860 to 1880) succeeded in conveying an aesthetic reality. 

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

What counts in their portraits is mood and movement, body language and silhouette. What counts in the world in which the model is painted is the setting and the décor. What also matters, particularly so, is the clothing - acting as an eyewitness to the aesthetics of an age, a textile expression of tastes, attitudes and lifestyles. 

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

Also on view, a generous selection of fashion publications of the period including "La Mode Illustrée", "La Mode Miniature", and even "La Dernière Mode" by Stéphane Mallarmé. Added to this some fifteen dresses from the Impressionist years, walking dresses and tea gowns, restored thanks to the sponsorship provided by the house of Dior. 

 

Until January 20, 2013, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Christian Dior-sponsored exhibition “L'impressionnisme et la Mode” (Impressions of Fashion)#

And, of course, let us not forget the spectacular collection of paintings by those Impressionist masters who recognized in clothes a unique expressive medium.