Summer: a guide to fashion exhibitions around the world

Summer is synonymous with holidays. If you are travelling around the world but feeling nostalgic for Galleria Cavour, we suggest a short guide to the most interesting exhibitions dedicated to fashion and its protagonists that you can visit during your travels in Italy and abroad.

Let’s start with one of the fashion capitals: in Paris, the Louvre is opening its doors for one of the largest themed fashion exhibitions ever hosted there. “Louvre Couture – Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces” explores the visceral relationship between haute couture and art. A selection of over 100 iconic garments, created by the greatest designers of all time, is exhibited alongside paintings and statues that inspired or influenced their creators.

The result is a dialogue between two worlds that have always influenced each other. Inside some of the museum’s most beautiful rooms, creations by Balenciaga, Schiaparelli and Chanel (among others) remind us that fashion is an art form that thrives on beauty and creativity. Moving from the French capital to the French Riviera, we recommend “The Roaring Twenties of Coco Chanel” at Villa Paloma in the Principality of Monaco. Bringing together memorabilia, models and textile creations, the exhibition shows us the most visionary side of the designer and tells us how she managed to reinvent women’s fashion at the time.

For those who have chosen to visit the other hemisphere, we recommend the exhibition in Melbourne, Australia, which celebrates two talents of the calibre of Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo. At the National Gallery, visitors can journey through history in an exhibition that tells the story of two seemingly opposite talents: on the one hand, the queen of British punk with her provocations and, on the other, the creative mind behind Comme des Garçons, a symbol of minimalism and asymmetry.

Back in Europe, until 21 September, at the Garden Museum in London, visitors can immerse themselves in the fascinating retrospective “Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party”. Famous for immortalising some of the most beloved celebrities of all time and for creating Oscar-winning sets, the exhibition takes visitors on a truly immersive journey to discover an award-winning talent in a setting that combines fashion, art and bucolic charm.

We conclude with a recommendation for those staying in Italy: until 28 September, Palazzo Pitti in Florence is hosting “Moda in Luce 1925-1955. Alle origini del made in Italy” (Fashion in Light 1925-1955. The origins of Made in Italy): a fascinating journey through fashion that recounts the birth of the myth of Italianness and gives us all a precious account of the history of our customs.

Ph: Particolare da Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons