This exhibition explores the ‘underworld’ of female and male undergarments such as the fly, the pannier, the corset, the crinoline, the bustle, the pouf, the stomach belt, the bra and other vestimentary devices fashioning the body by means of whalebones, hoops and cushions according to the changing dictates of fashion. Modelling the body sometimes to extremes, these “mechanical garments” enabled the wearer to artificially attain the ideal of beauty of the time. This exploration is full of surprising discoveries since, contrary to common belief, these artifices were by no means a 19^th-century speciality. Recourse to these concealed architectures has been constant since at least since the 14^th century until the present day. Illustrating the diversity of artifices and their mechanics with museum pieces rarely shown to the public, this exhibition – the first of its kind – takes us ‘backstage’, into another, behind-the-scenes history of clothing and fashion.

photo vogue.fr

Lejaby, « Irrésistible », 1951-1952
photo vogue.fr

In the nineteenth century, the underwear has never been so abundant and hidden at the same time . If, throughout the history of fashion, changing forms and techniques are refined, the design of the mechanical garment is recurrent : clear the stomach size to compress the digging, keep the chest, enhance breasts – sometimes flatten – rounded hips. In short, comfort has often given way to the appearance until around 1900, Nicole Groult, Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet establish, for a time, the taste of the line “natural .

Comme des garçons, Prêt-à-porter, S-S 2012
photo vogue.fr

Dolce & Gabbana, dress and bra, S-S 2007
photo vogue.fr

If the concern of the bra is not compress or enhance the breasts but to follow suit and separate , he lost all the essential role of old clothes boned : modeling the silhouette ? Nowadays, bras ” ampliformes ” Push up and to create a plunging even the most minor effect silhouettes , yet meet the dictates of the canons of beauty at a time when the body is shaped less by clothing by diets, body building and surgery. However, the history of the corset, the crinoline or the turn is not gone so far as designers like Thierry Mugler , Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons , Christian Lacroix and Vivienne Westwood, etc. . delivered some amazing examples to claim that the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have made below once an experimental above .

Jean Paul Gaultier, haute couture, AW 2008-2009
photo vogue.fr

1775-1780
photo vogue.fr

1872
photo vogue.fr

Dress, 1760
photo vogue.fr

Along with two hundred shown below – and trained in these hidden structures complete clothes – the exhibition shows models covered reconstructions baskets, crinolines or bustles, etc., all animated to capture the ingenuity of mechanisms. In addition, an area of the course is specially dedicated to fitting corsets, baskets eighteenth or crinolines, all specially made ​​identical, so that the visitor can bear and understand these structures have played a key role in the history of fashion and dress usage.

Thierry Mugler, Prêt-à-porter, S-S 1992
photo vogue.fr

dress, 1881
photo vogue.fr

Comme des Garçons, Bump Dress, prêt-à-porter S-S 1997
photo vogue.fr

via lesartsdecoratifs.fr