With “Love brings love”, the Palais Galliera celebrates Alber Elbaz

This is the first time that a fashion exhibition has engaged in such an exercise, that of recreating a parade. Until July 10, the Palais Galliera in Paris offers “Love brings love” (“love calls love”), a staging of the show in tribute to Alber Elbaz presented in October 2021 in Paris. The couturier, who passed through Guy Laroche, Saint Laurent and Lanvin where he remained for fourteen years, died of Covid-19 in April 2021, at the age of 59. He had just launched his own house, AZ Factory (with the Richemont group), and showed his first collection by video in January 2021.

Strolling through the halls of Galliera, we realize how much Alber Elbaz was appreciated and esteemed in the fashion world: 46 competing designers agreed to participate in the tribute parade. Through the creations of Dior or Vuitton, LVMH rubs shoulders with its rival Kering (Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, etc.). Italian big names such as Giorgio Armani or Versace are present, as are young foreign designers with the Chinese Guo Pei or the South African Thebe Magugu.

Creations presented in the “Love brings love” exhibition: Alaïa (pink dress on the left), Balmain (white dress and pink shoulders 2nd left), Bottega Veneta (in green), Balenciaga (pink bow dress), Burberry (golden dress) , Giorgio Armani (fluffy green on the right).

We also come across one of the last silhouettes that Virgil Abloh – who died in November 2021 – presented during his lifetime for his Off-White brand. This exceptional concentration of fashion corresponds to a dream of Alber Elbaz, “who wanted to create a huge traveling parade with all the greatest designers of his time”, explains the curator, Alexandre Samson. He goes behind the scenes of this singular exhibition.

Why make an exhibition around a fashion show?

When Alber Elbaz died, I wanted to bring a piece from his AZ Factory collection into the museum. I contacted the brand, which then asked me if we could host the tribute fashion show in Galliera in October. We would have loved it, but Galliera is too small. The idea of ​​the exhibition was born at that time, but we couldn’t commit before seeing the silhouettes! Tributes are not always easy, I remember the parade for the 40th anniversary of the Sonia Rykiel house in 2008: there was good and less good… The parade for Alber removed all my hesitations. I said go, knowing that it was going to be sporty since we only had four months ahead of us.

How did you adapt?

We knew it wasn’t going to be a thundering exhibition in the style of Dior [présentée au MAD à Paris en 2017]. Our ambition was to recreate the parade for those who had not seen it, and we were pleased that no museum had undertaken such an exercise before. We took over the lights of the show, the music, the confetti that fell from the ceiling at the end. We put benches around the silhouettes so that we could watch them seated, like in the parade. And we chose models [en fibre de verre] different colors to match the complexion of the real models. Since this is not a classic exhibition with showcases, you might as well do things differently!

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