(Haute) Couture in European Museums (1900-2026): Origins, Developments, and Contemporary Issues
La (haute) couture au musée en Europe (XXe–XXIe siècle) : genèse, mutations et enjeux contemporains
“Culture & Musées” journal, thematic issue
Revue « Culture & Musées », numéro thématique
Abstract
Since the late nineteenth century, fashion has gradually found its place in European heritage institutions. Initially considered mere historical or technical objects, fashion garments became fully-fledged musealized objects during the twentieth century—and especially since the 1980s. The growth of fashion collections, the creation of specialist fashion museums, and the increase in successful fashion exhibitions have solidified haute couture’s permanent presence in museums. This phenomenon has been accompanied by a profound transformation in the status of the fashion garment, which is now viewed as heritage, art, and a cultural product.
Announcement
Argument
Over the course of the twentieth century, and especially since the 1980s, fashion—particularly haute couture—has gradually moved into museums. While collecting mania and industrial exhibitions made it possible to exhibit garments as early as the last quarter of the nineteenth century, these objects were long relegated to the margins of heritage institutions—even as retrospective exhibitions in art and industry museums framed dress as heritage since the start (Froissart & Gril-Mariotte, 2023). In France, the 1874 Musée Historique du Costume exhibition, organized by the Union centrale des beaux-arts appliqués à l’industrie, brought a first level of visibility to the exhibition of historical garments, both through its scale —some 6,000 garments as well as visual material illustrating how they were worn—and to its popular success (Bass-Krueger, 2024). This exhibition was part of a retrospective rationale that treated historic garments as historical documents. Other experiments followed, such as at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, where two complementary exhibitions reflected a shift in exhibition strategy : in one exhibition, the presence of a couture house as an exhibition organizer led to confusion between historic clothing and contemporary design, mixing real and faux and collection and couture. And while contemporary couture was displayed as well to some extent, particularly in World Fair pavilions, it remained largely outside of museums, which focused on historic dress. It was only after World War Two that a more assertive form of institutionalization of fashion developed with the emergence of structured collections in decorative arts museums and, gradually, in specialist fashion museums.
Today, art museums routinely hold blockbuster fashion exhibitions. In 2025, Louvre Couture, held in the museum’s decorative arts wing and organized by the department’s director Olivier Gabet, attracted over one million visitors, making it the museum’s second-most visited exhibition ever, after an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci in 2019. Louvre Couture underscored a longstanding but increasingly visible phenomenon : the “artification” of clothing. In this process, a couturier – a renowned fashion designer – asserts his closeness to the art world. This entry of fashion into museums is not simply a process of heritagization ; it prompts a profound transformation in the status and values of clothing, which becomes seen as a historical document, artwork, and a cultural product all at once. It also entails a reconfiguration of museum practices, including increasingly spectacular exhibition design, a greater focus on the visitor experience, and increased hybridization with event- and entertainment-based rationales.
In parallel, the institutionalization of fashion within the museum field is part of a complex set of dynamics between public policy, private initiatives, and brand strategies. This raises specific issues that extend beyond the creation of collections or the conservation of fragile, unstable materials. These issues concern the legitimization of a field that has historically existed at the intersection of art, craft, and industry. The growing presence of fashion in museums is part of a broader process of artification and starmaking, which are helping to redefine authority figures, from the artist-couturier to the exhibition curator, and to transform how fashion and museums relate to each other. Far from being simply a locus of heritagization, the museum is a core driver in the transformation of fashion’s status, values, and uses.
For the past twenty years or so, research on fashion in museums has come from within the disciplines of fashion history, museology, and cultural studies. The foundational work of Valerie Steele (1998, 2008) and Lou Taylor (2004) helped to make fashion exhibitions and collections a topic of study within fashion studies. Their work highlighted the role of exhibitions and museums in the cultural recognition of dress and in establishing its status as an object worthy of being conserved and interpreted. Subsequent research has interrogated the historical processes of clothing heritagization and the historiography of fashion collections, exhibitions, and museums (Petrov 2019 ; Bass-Krueger 2018, 2024 ; Bosc, 2024 ; Clark & De la Haye, 2014 ; Delille, 2017 ; Fontaine, 2016). These studies have shown that early museums and institutions not only conserved garments but played an active role in determining the value of garments, how they should be categorized, and how their cultural biographies could be shaped. This research helped define the historiography of fashion heritage.
More recently, researchers have analyzed the unique aspects of fashion exhibitions by examining exhibition design, curatorial practices, and forms of insitututional mediation (Crawley & Barbieri, 2013 ; Horsley, 2015 ; König & Mentges, 2019 ; Riegels, 2019 ; Riegls & Svensson, 2014 ; Vänska & Clark, 2019). Fashion exhibitions are immersive, performative environments that transcend the mere presentation of objects. In these spaces, objects, their staging, and the audience interact in a network of relationships that reconfigures the status, timescale, and value of fashion (Van Godtsenhoven, 2021). Pecorari (2022) emphasizes the performative dimension of fashion exhibitions, viewing them as discursive and critical tools that actually contribute to the production of fashion itself.
Lastly, a third body of work has analyzed the contemporary transformation of the relationship between fashion and museums, focusing on the processes of artification and starmaking. Several researchers have demonstrated how fashion exhibitions are reconfiguring the hierarchies between art, crafts, and industry by contributing to the cultural and artistic legitimization of clothing design (Delille, 2017 ; Saillard, 2019). Horsley (in Clark & De la Haye 2014) underscores the significant increase in fashion exhibitions since the 1970s, as well as the rise of monographic exhibitions devoted to designers, which he sees as one of the most significant developments in contemporary fashion museography. Thus, museums emerge as pivotal players in creating new forms of visibility and authority in the field of fashion.
Despite the range and depth of this output, several blind spots remain. European dynamics and the interactions between public policymaking, institutional strategies, and private interests have not yet undergone adequate comparative study. Likewise, issues related to the conservation of contemporary fashion, and the implications of new forms of mediation, such as digital and immersive technologies, require deeper analysis. This issue intends to inform these debates by offering a historical and critical approach to the relationship between fashion and museums, considering the connections, mechanisms, and stakeholders shaping this ever-evolving field.
Theme 1. From Clothing to Heritage : Emergence and Development of the Fashion Museum
This theme explores the emergence and the development of fashion museums in Europe, including specialist institutions and dedicated departments within generalist museums. The aim is to analyze the historical, political, and cultural circumstances that led to fashion’s gradual recognition as a legitimate heritage object. In addition to garment conservation and exhibition, we invite contributions that examine how museums have influenced creative practices, visual references, and forms of legitimization in the field of fashion. How and why did fashion become a subject of museum collections ? What dynamics have fostered the transformation of textile collections, historically formed for historical or technical purposes, into fashion collections centered on designers and couture houses ? Contributions may examine the role played by the various stakeholders in assembling collections, including private collectors, couture houses, public institutions, and curators and conservators. Special attention may be given to methods of acquisition (donation, deposit, purchase) and valorization within museums. The evolution of institutions may also be analyzed through a typology of museum models, such as specialist museums, fashion departments within art or decorative arts museums, brand foundations, and other institutions. This theme invites investigation of the tension between public heritage rationales and private/commercial interests. Lastly, specific French characteristics and European interactions will be considered to better understand what drives the institutionalization of fashion at the continental level.
Theme 2. The Staging of Fashion : Historical Narration and Materiality
This theme looks at how clothing is exhibited, whether historic garments or contemporary designs, by interrogating the history of fashion exhibition and the changes that have occurred in terms of conservation, mediation, and spectacularizing. What scenography devices have been invented to display fashion, from the wax mannequins of the late nineteenth-century world fairs to recent exhibition designs that borrow their spectacular effects from fashion shows ? How do considerations around presentation – such as garments on mannequins, suspended, on hangers, or laid flat – and preservation considerations – such as display cases, pedestals, and distancing – influence the material comprehension and aesthetic perception of the pieces on show ?
Contributions may explore the role of exhibition design elements, such as lighting, architecture, and soundscapes in constructing narratives and ways of understanding fashion. In this respect, the use of mannequins is a central issue, especially for bespoke historic garments and haute couture one-offs, whose presentation – particularly when accompanied by accessories – prompts reflection on the absent body. Indeed, exhibiting fashion involves specific tangible constraints : light-sensitivity of textiles, fragility of certain materials, limitation of exhibition run times, and use of substitutes (facsimiles, video recordings, archives). These constraints raise questions about the tensions between authenticity, accessibility, and conservation. Lastly, heritage issues related to the conservation of contemporary pieces may be addressed, particularly regarding the obsolescence of certain textiles and materials, highlighting the limitations of museum practices when dealing with fashion objects.
Theme 3. From Couture to Works Held By/Shown in Museums : Artification and Starmaking
This theme analyzes the role played by museums in the artification of fashion and the construction of the couturier as an artist. We welcome contributions that examine the transformation of statuses and hierarchies between art, craftsmanship, and industry. Which museum processes have been used to elevate the status of couturier-designer at the expense of the more technical figure of the couturier-dressmaker, helping establish fashion as an artistic field liable worthy of museum exhibition ? In what ways have museums contributed to the transformation of couture, its designers, and its collective expertise (i.e. the ateliers and petites mains) into artistic and media figures who occupy a central place in the contemporary museum experience ? Special attention may be paid to the emergence and development of monographic and biographic exhibitions. In what contexts do these exhibitions appear, and how do they contribute to the construction of the “genius designer” ? To what extent have exhibitions helped couture houses and designers build artistic and cultural genealogies ? In turn, how have couture houses leveraged the promotion of their heritage in museums by opening their own heritage institutions ? Contributions may also explore the phenomenon of disciplinary hybridity through dialogues between fashion, contemporary art, design, and performance. Designers often embrace these dialogues, which are helping to redefine the boundaries of art and to legitimize fashion’s presence in museums. Finally, this theme invites us to interrogate the impact of museums on the very processes by which a fashion piece is defined. Proposals may accordingly examine how museums take part in the cultural legitimization of fashion and in constructing the designer as author or artist. The intention is to consider the museum not only as a place for conservation, but also as an agent in the history and cultural production of fashion.
This issue’s guest editors
Maude Bass-Krueger is professor of art history at Ghent University, where she teaches the history of fashion, textiles and museums. Her research focuses mainly on the cultural history of fashion in France and Europe, clothing collections and exhibitions, and the processes of fashion heritagization and museumification. She has published several articles on these topics and is currently working on a book. She founded and directs Revers, a Belgian fashion research network. She is also leading a project on the history of Belgian fashion from 1830 to 1980, based on unpublished archives, in collaboration with Belgian museums and heritage institutions.
Aziza Gril-Mariotte is professor of art history at Aix-Marseille Université and a researcher at TELEMMe research unit co-run by that university and the CNRS. Her research focuses on artistic creativity and technical innovation in the French textile industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. More recently, she has explored the museumification and heritagization of textiles in 19th-century Europe ; and her application to direct research, in 2021 at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, included a paper entitled Une histoire des étoffes imprimées, des arts industriels au patrimoine (XVIIIe-XXIe siècle). Créations, collections, musées. She is a member of the management committee of the Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens, and since 2022 has headed the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon.
Submission guidelines
Please email your proposals for articles (approx. 10,000 characters, spaces included) by 30 September 2026 to :
- Aziza Gril-Mariotte : aziza.gril-mariotte@univ-amu.fr
- Maude Bass-Krueger : maude.basskrueger@ugent.be
Copied to :
- Dominique Poulot (editorial director) : culturedominique@gmail.com
- Pauline Grison (editorial secretariat) : pauline.grison@univ-avignon.fr
Formatting of article proposals
Approx. 10,000 characters, including spaces
File in.docx format and precisely named as follows : CM-50-PC-Name of author (or lead author if there are several)
Document written in Times New Roman, 12 pt, with (right and left) justified text.
Contents of article proposals
The proposal includes, in the following order :
- SURNAME and first name of author 1
- Email address
- Status : job title and employer institution (university, research unit)
- Biography (600 characters maximum)
- Ditto for authors 2, 3, etc. if there are several authors
- Title of proposed article
- Text of proposal :
- The text of the proposed article should set out the disciplinary or interdisciplinary framework of the research, the research question, the fieldwork or corpus, the methodology employed and an initial outlook on the results. It should also indicate how the article relates to one or more of the thematic areas proposed in the call for papers.
- 5 key words
- 5 bibliographical references used in the planned article
Schedule :
- 30 September 2026 : Deadline for receipt of article proposals
- Mid-October 2026 : Authors notified (proposal accepted or rejected)
- Mid-February 2027 : Receipt of full articles
- March 2027 : Double-blind review of articles
- April 2027 : Feedback to authors (agreement or refusal to publish following review)
- June 2027 : Receipt of final versions of articles with metadata
- December 2027 : Publication of the issue.
The Culture & Musées journal
Culture & Musées is a twice-yearly scientific research journal with a review committee that practices double-blind review. It publishes previously unpublished research on cultural audiences, institutions, and mediations. It is intended for researchers and students in these fields, as well as for museum and heritage professionals. Culture & Musées is a recognized journal in the field of information and communication sciences (section 71, CNU – Conseil national des universités). The journal is published by Editions Universitaires d’Avignon, with support from the Ministry of Culture, the Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales of the CNRS, the Université de Lorraine and the Centre Norbert Elias (CNE). Culture & Musées is distributed in its print version by Editions Universitaires d’Avignon, and is freely available on the OpenEdition portal : https://journals.openedition.org/culturemusees/
Direction
- Publishers : Maud Pélissier-Thieriot and Julie Deramond (Avignon Université)
- Editorial directors : Dominique Poulot (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Éric Triquet (Avignon Université)
- Deputy editorial director : Gaëlle Crenn (Université de Lorraine)
- Editorial and publishing coordinator : Pauline Grison (Avignon Université)
Editorial committee
- Sébastien Appiotti, Sorbonne Université
- Florence Andreacola, Université Grenoble Alpes
- Arnaud Bertinet, Université Paris 1
- Isabelle Brianso, Avignon Université
- Marie Cambone, Université Grenoble Alpes
- Nathalie Cerezales, Institut National du Patrimoine
- Sandra Costa, Université de Bologne
- Saskia Cousin, Université Paris Nanterre
- Gaëlle Crenn, Université de Lorraine
- Catherine Cuenca, AGCCPF, Université de Nantes
- Jessica de Bideran, Université Bordeaux Montaigne
- Julie Deramond, Avignon Université
- Manuelina Maria Duarte Cândido, Université de Liège
- Patrick Fraysse, Université Toulouse 3
- Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Aix-Marseille Université
- Daniel Jacobi, Avignon Université
- Camille Jutant, Université Lyon 2
- Joëlle Le Marec, Sorbonne Université
- François Mairesse, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
- Lucie Marinier, CNAM
- Anik Meunier, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Nicolas Navarro, Université de Liège
- Isabel Nottaris, OCIM
- Emilie Pamart, Avignon Université
- Dominique Poulot, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
- Lise Renaud, Avignon Université
- Cécile Tardy, Université de Lille
- Olivier Thévenin, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
- Eric Triquet, Avignon Université
- Fabien Van Geert, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
- Mathieu Viau-Courville, OCIM
- Jean-Christophe Vilatte, Université de Lorraine
Bibliographical references
Bass-Krueger (Maude). 2018. “Fashion Collections, Collectors, and Exhibitions in France, 1874–1900 : Historical Imagination, the Spectacular Past, and the Practice of Restoration”. Fashion Theory, 22(4-5), p. 405-433.
Bass-Krueger (Maude). 2024. “1874-75 : The Birth of a Fashion Heritage Consciousness in France”. In Situ. Revue des patrimoines, 52, article 41004, [en ligne].
Belfanti (Carlo Marco). 2014. Histoire culturelle de la mode. Paris : Éd. du Regard / IFM. [Traduction française de Civilità della moda, Bologne : Il Mulino, 2008.]
Bosc (Alexandra) & Monjaret (Anne) (dir.). 2024. “Le vêtement et la mode, un patrimoine incarné”. In Situ. Revue des patrimoines, 52, [en ligne].
Clark (Judith) & De la Haye (Amy) (dir.). 2014. Exhibiting Fashion : Before and After 1971. New Haven : Yale University Press.
Crawley (Greer) & Barbieri (Donatella). 2013. “Dress, Time, and Space : Expanding the Field through Exhibition Making”, p. 44-60 in The Handbook of Fashion Studies. London : Bloomsbury.
Debo (Kaat). 2021. Fashion : The MoMu Collection – Antwerp. Tielt : Lannoo Publishers.
Delille (Damien). 2017. “La mode au musée : histoire et enjeux de pratiques au féminin”. Culture & Musées, 30, p. 91-109.
Delille (Damien) & Sénéchal (Philippe) (dir.). 2020. Modes et vêtements : retour aux textes. Paris : INHA / MAD.
Fontaine (Alexia). 2016. Conditions d’émergence et développement des collections vestimentaires : patrimonialisation, muséalisation, virtualisation. Regards croisés en France - Canada - Québec (XIXe-XXIe siècle). Thèse de doctorat en histoire, sous la direction Odile PARSIS-BARUBÉ et Philippe Dubé, université de Lille et université Laval . Elle est sur HAL
Froissart (Rossella) et Gril-Mariotte (Aziza). 2023. Art et industrie, l’Europe des musées au XIXe siècle, instruire, collecter, exposer, Turnhout, ed. Brepols.
Gril-Mariotte (Aziza). 2022. “Introduction Générale”. Communication présentée au colloque Exposer les modes, une histoire du mannequinage au musée, CRESAT, Mulhouse, juin 2022.
Horsley (Jeffrey). 2015. “A Fashion ’Muséographie’ : The Delineation of Innovative Presentation Modes at ModeMuseum, Antwerp”. Fashion Theory, 19(1), p. 43-66.
Jan (Morgan). 2011. Culture couture : la reconnaissance patrimoniale du vêtement de couturier-créateur en France, de la fin du dix-neuvième siècle à nos jours. Thèse de doctorat en histoire contemporaine, sous la direction de Pascal Ory, université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Kim (Amber). 2025. “Sustainable Fashion Exhibitions : Shifting to an Inclusive and Interactive Approach in Sustainability Education”. The International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context, 21(2), p. 75-98
König (Gudrun M.) & Mentges (Gabriele) (dir.). 2019. Musealized Fashion : Positions, Theses, Perspectives. Dortmund : Technische Universität Dortmund.
Lethuillier (Jean-Pierre) & Mentges (Gabriele) (dir.). 2024. Le Patrimoine textile des musées européens. Muséologie, stratégies et perspectives. Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes.
Lubell (Cecil) (éd.). 1977. Textile Collections of the World, vol. 3 : “An Illustrated Guide to the Textile Collections in French Museums”. New York, Toronto : Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Pecorari (Marco). 2021. Fashion Remains : Rethinking Fashion Ephemera in the Archive. London : Bloomsbury.
Pecorari (Marco). 2022. “Mode exposée, mode performée”. Critique, 901-902, p. 495-507.
Petrov (Julia). 2019. Fashion, History, Museums : Inventing the Display of Dress. London : Bloomsbury.
Privat-Savigny (Maria-Anne). 2010. “La collection de costumes du siècle des lumières conservée au Musée des Tissus de Lyon : histoire de la collection, essai de typologie” in Textiles et costumes, échanges commerciaux. Lyon : EMCC.
Riegels Melchior (Marie). 2019. “Fashion Museology : Unpacking the Current Musealisation of Fashion”, p. 21-32 in Musealisierte Mode : Positionen, Thesen, Perspektiven / sous la direction de Gudrun M. König & Gabriele Mentges. Münster : Waxmann Verlag.
Riegels Melchior (Marie) & Svensson (Birgitta) (dir.). 2014. Fashion and Museums : Theory and Practice. London : Bloomsbury.
Saillard (Olivier). 2019. “La mode au musée”, in Le Bouquin de la mode. Paris : Robert Laffont, p. 699-710.
Sporn (Stéphanie). 2026. “With new Costume Institute exhibition and galleries, the Met makes powerful statement about fashion’s place in museums”, The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/11/metropolitan-museum-costume-institute-exhibition-review-costume-art-new-galleries
Steele (Valerie). 1998. “A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes-Bag”. Fashion Theory, 2(4), p. 327-335.
Steele (Valerie). 2008. “Museum Quality : The Rise of the Fashion Exhibition”. Fashion Theory, 12(1), p. 7-30.
Taylor (Lou). 2004. Establishing Dress History. Manchester : Manchester University Press.
Van Godtsenhoven (Karen). 2021. “Affect, Haptics, and Heterotopia in Fashion Curation”, in The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies. London : Routledge.
Vänskä (Annamari) & Clark (Hazel) (dir.). 2019. Fashion Curating : Critical Practice in the Museum and Beyond. London : Bloomsbury.
Attached files
Keywords
- muséologie, mode, haute couture, patrimoine
Reference Urls
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« (Haute) Couture in European Museums (1900-2026): Origins, Developments, and Contemporary Issues », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16gid
Google Calendar
iCal