Paris is still good at fashion

A recent trip to Paris afforded me the chance to see an amazing fashion exhibit, and while you might not be able to catch it in person, by harnessing the power of the interwebz, you don’t have to.

Docks en Seine, a small gallery on the left bank, is comprised of a covered outdoor exhibition space with several smaller display rooms along one side. One of these houses White Drama, an all-white bondage-y collection from Japanese conceptual design house Comme des Garçons, home to designers including Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe.

The house’s drape-heavy pieces were mounted on faceless, hooded and masked mannequins inside giant clear plastic bubbles. Natural light flooded the room as visitors circled gorgeous, highly detailed silk garments, with the gallery’s view over the Seine as a backdrop.

A second room sheltered Cristóbal Balenciaga: Collectionneur de modes, a smattering of the Spanish designer’s intricate couture pieces alongside selections from the extensive collection of vintage clothing he used to inspire them. His treasure chest of antique mantillas, bolero jackets and fussy undergarments is interesting enough in itself, but these were blown away by the designer’s own work, each one a singular artistic vision realized with intricate craftsmanship (the beadwork!).

Seeing these exhibits side-by-side was awesome, in the traditional, stunned sense of the word. Before, I would never have thought the two houses had much in common, aside from their emphasis on conceptual design, attention to detail and astronomical distance from my price range. But viewing them concurrently revealed their similarity of form, such as a focus on using large bustles and draped jackets to frame how fabric hangs.

Fashion-oriented art shows, such as last year’s hella popular Jean Paul Gaultier retrospective here in Montreal or the Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada exhibition on now at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, point to the tremendous potential and appeal of couture-based art shows. The Docks en Seine exhibit proves that you don’t need a huge space and massive collection to do it right.

Should you find yourself in Paris, White Drama and Cristóbal Balenciaga: Collectionneur de modes are on until October 7

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