Exhibition : Fashion Mix, mode d’ici, créateurs d’ailleurs

The biggest foreign fashion designers are exhibited in Paris and their stories are told through an exhibition “Fashion Mix, mode d’ici, créateur d’ailleurs” who relates another story of immigration outlining their influence on French fashion! Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration, 293 avenue Daumesnil 75012 Paris “Fashion Mix, mode d’ici, créateurs d’ailleurs”, From the 9th of December 2014 until the 31st of May 2015. Interview: Olivier Saillard: The exhibition started with bringing together our two institutions, The Palais Galliera and The History of Immigration Museum, and it seemed almost obvious that if we had a project to make together, we should start by the beginning, which is about the founder of the French haute couture. Really for a long time now I haven’t stopped saying that the inventor of French haute couture was none other than Charles Frederick Worth who was from English origin and this kind of incongruity must be applauded and recognised and needed to be said loud and proud. When do we stop with all the names that make up the history of fashion, of course there are, I don’t really like to say, typically French designers, like Christian Dior, like Saint Laurent, like Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, and there are others who are just as important, and who are from a completely foreign origin but, who asked for a French nationality or who have adopted the French country, and who have in any case have stylistically influenced French fashion. The couturiers who fled their countries or who chose to leave their countries, some left sometimes for artistic reasons, but often for economical reasons, or political, and that is really touching to be seen here and of course evidently at the The History of Immigration Museum, there was a real need to think about fashion differently, with new eyes. The subject of this exhibition clearly is about the different flows of migration but the message today is to continue to follow these flows, even beyond fashion, in all different socio-professional categories, the more we follow them, the better it will be. The foreign designers are good when they don’t talk exotically about their own country, but when they talk about Paris with exoticism. No matter where you come from, in fashion, you can be qualified or not, you can be exuberant or not, you can be a foreigner or not, but from the moment you have something to say, the door is wide open.