The in Paris has opened its first-ever , seeking to draw new, younger audiences amid national concern about conditions inside the landmark art destination. The show, called "Louvre Couture," welcomed its first visitors a day after a shock memo from the museum's director about water leaks, building problems and overcrowding made headlines internationally. The exhibition features around a hundred items of clothing by 45 top designers, placed alongside objects from the Louvre's vast collection of decorative artworks, from chests of drawers to armor.
In one instance, a Dolce & Gabbana wool dress printed with a mosaic and embroidered with crystals, stones, and sequins echoes the patterns of an 11th-century Italian mosaic from Torcello, near Venice. Louvre director Laurence des Cars said the show demonstrated "a subtle and precise dialogue between creations from the 1960s to today and the collections of the decorative arts department, highlighting the deep connection between art and designers." The world's most-visited museum is hoping to emulate the success of fashion exhibitions hosted by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's Victoria and Albert in recent years.
A major 2017 retrospective about Christian Dior at the Museum of Decorative Arts, which occupies a wing of the Louvre Palace, led to huge queues and drew a string of A-listers. The Paris landmark has become a national subject of concern after the revelation on Jan. 23 of a confidential memo written by des Car.
