The Director of the Musée Galliera, Olivier Saillard, is presenting at the Beaux-Arts de Paris for the Festival d’Automne. Thanks to Clare Waight and the entire team at Chloé, the Eternity Dress project will come to life from Wednesday, November 20th to Sunday, November 24th. It’s the fruit of research and work in residence at Chloé, who is seeking to highlight the gestural memory of their workshops. Olivier Saillard is able to bring out the laws of the silhouette by starting from patrons discovered in the archives of the Musée Galliera. These served as a model for students from schools of cuts in the 50s and 60s. In this way, the conception of this lone dress ends up being the result of a mathematical and progressive process. All of the stages of creation are consecrated in order to perpetuate each of the small gestures that led to the fabrication of the final garment.
Each night, the dress will be put together and taken apart in this makeshift atelier. The conception of the Eternity Dress could thus be seen as a shadow of every dress in contemporary fashion history: those of every label together in one, finally fessing up to the cyclical rebounds of the fashion system. By another measure, thanks to Chloé’s knowledge, the occasion is also presented to highlight the ensemble of the creative process for a piece of clothing. It’s a way to lay out a kind of “garment academy” before the eyes of the public. But, of course, an actual dress will not be created in the process, since that would defeat the purpose of the entire performance. The Eternity Dress is the wake, the stigma, the shadow, the offspring of every 20th century dress. Perhaps a kind of Apollo of the Belvedere made of chiffon.
Visual: © Katerina Jebb, 2013
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