You still have two and a half months to discover the exhibition on the history of the American fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, part of which gives pride of place to the precursors of fashion tech.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

As we know, fashion tech owes a lot to its pioneers, such as Olivier Lapidus but also to its precursors, André and Coqueline Courrèges, the founders of the house Courrèges, Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne, all these couturiers who made technological fashion before their time. It’s the futuristic fashion, one of the cultural trends of the sixties, influenced by the conquest of space, which began in 1961 with the first Soviet flights and the race to the moon, won by the Americans in 1969. A Space Age fashion amply immortalized by magazines , like Harper's Bazaar, to which the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is dedicating an exhibition, until the start of next year.

Among the sixty couture and ready-to-wear creations, presented in correspondence with the images of them as they were originally featured in the American magazine, part of the exhibition highlights the lunar inspiration of Courrèges, with a coat, a pair of glasses and flat boots emblematic of the French house work, in a room surrounded by a frieze of magazine pages with cosmic accents, from the same period (see below: © Le Boudoir Numérique).

Also on display are two copies of the magazine, with covers signed respectively by the American photographers Hiro, in October 1964 and Richard Avedon, in September 1963 (see below: © Le Boudoir Numérique).

Another copy of the magazine, again by Richard Avedon, has an eye glued, on its cover, to that of the English model Jean Shrimpton. The eye opens and closes, depending on the viewing angle, delivering a wink. Released in a limited edition in April 1965, this issue of Harper's Bazaar is now a collector's item.

Note also a reference to Paco Rabanne, with three pieces in aluminum sheet, produced by the inventors of musical instruments Bernard and François Baschet for the movie by the American photographer William Klein, Who are you Polly Maggoo ?, in 1966 (see below: © Le Boudoir Numérique).

The metallic dresses fashion show in the movie echoes the creations of Paco Rabanne, called by the press the “fashion metalworker”, following his collection of “12 importable dresses in contemporary materials”, in 1966. This unconventional use of materials, rhodoïd and aluminum in particular, made Paco Rabanne the precursor of current fashion tech, of its dresses in woven optical fiber and other intelligent fabrics incorporating electronics to interact with their environment. Check out the extract from Who Are You Polly Maggoo? fashion show, below.

Finally, the exhibition ends with the metallic Dolce & Gabbana dress, immortalized in the SF-inspired fashion series, Metallic Moment, by German photographer Peter Lindbergh for Harper's Bazaar, in 2007 (see below: © Le Boudoir Numérique).

* The exhibition Harper's Bazaar, premier magazine de mode, takes place at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris, until January 3, 2021. All information on MAD website here.

* Continue reading on Le Boudoir Numérique :

- Exhibition La Fabrique du Vivant

- Exhibition Neurons, simulated intelligences