Vestology - From 29 August to 13 October

From 29 August to 13 October, Printemps Haussmann (Paris) presents the exhibition ‘Vestologie’, curated by Sylvie Marot, Director of the Art Culture Heritage Department at ESMOD International, and Marlène Van de Casteele, post-doctoral lecturer and researcher at ESMOD International.

Jackets are a wardrobe must-have. Suits, pea coats, dinner jackets, tailcoats, overalls or officer's jackets - there are many different types. Through the constant changes of fashion, jackets have always redefined the way people dress and have become an essential part of both men's and women's wardrobes.

From rich pageantry to black austerity, from the prerogative of the male renunciation of ostentation to the symbol of female emancipation, from bourgeois to rock, the jacket is also the most ambivalent garment in the history of costume and fashion. 

The ‘Vestology’ exhibition explores the rich social and cultural history of this garment, the foundation of the modern wardrobe, and plays with opposites. Examining its form, function, codes and manufacture, the jacket is seen in all its guises. Shaped, sharp, streamlined, semi-fitted or loose, jackets have adapted to every body type, with an architectural structure that better dresses and corrects the body. Bar or denim jacket, morning coat or safari jacket, overcoat or blazer? Balenciaga or Lanvin, Rabanne or Courrèges, Kenzo or Gaultier? There's a jacket for every style.

Loans from contemporary fashion houses are on display alongside historic pieces. ESMOD is presenting jackets from its study collection (Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler, Dries Van Noten, Watanabe, etc.) as well as previously unpublished documents from the archives of Alexis Lavigne and his daughter, Alice Guerre. 

Thank you to the lenders and to all those who made this project possible. 

BALENCIAGA, CHRISTIAN DIOR COUTURE, COURRÈGES, ESMOD Héritage, E. DE FLIGUÉ - FALBALAS, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, KENZO, LANVIN, LIBRAIRIE DIKTATS, LOUIS VUITTON, MARITHÉ+FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD, PRINTEMPS Héritage, RABANNE, RAREBOOKSPARIS, YUIMA NAKAZATO, YIQING YIN, YVES SAINT LAURENT BEAUTÉ.

 Many thanks to Dong-Hwan Lim for his availability and modelling skills. 

 View of the Vestologie exhibition, in the historic Wybo dome, Printemps de la Femme, Paris ©Printemps

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