Three reasons to see the “1997 FASHION BIG BANG” fashion exhibition in Paris

The essence of the fashion industry is to always be one step ahead. In this case, it entered the third millennium in 1997, as the Palais Galliera explains. Indeed, the fashion museum of the city of Paris is presenting a historic exhibition from March 7 to July 16, 2023 which allows us to grasp how this year marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new era for the whole sector.

Ready-to-wear collections that will define the 21st century

Indeed, that year, several collections left an indelible mark on the history of fashion. Starting with the explosion of Comme des Garçons by the Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo who presents her collection “Body meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” in Paris: she does not try to flatter women’s bodies, but to deform them. It’s up to you to read a commentary on the Hiroshima nuclear disaster and/or a critical discourse on consumer society and the unrealistic aesthetic ideals imposed on women’s bodies. Martin Margiela presents his Stockman collection which completely deconstructs the very idea of ​​haute couture. Or Raf Simons with “Black Palms” setting the tone for the subtle aesthetic (which TikTok is reinventing today under the moniker Indie sleaze) that we now associate so much with Hedi Slimane.

Great tailors at the pinnacle of their craft

It is also a crazy year for haute couture with collections all more emblematic than each other, between John Galliano arriving at Dior, Alexander McQueen at Givenchy, and Jean Paul Gaultier or Thierry Mugler at the peak of their art. This is what brings a number of Vogue Paris of the time to speak of the “Big Bang”, an expression that the Palais Galliera uses today to entitle this exhibition event. Such was the frenzy that requests for press accreditation for the January 1997 couture shows increased by 30%, reports the New York Times.

It’s also a year where the fashion scene is becoming even more industrialised. The advent of the first it-bag, the Fendi Baguette, invented in 1997 and appeared the same year in the series Sex and the city attests it. The ten years of the LVMH group confirm this. And the assassination of Gianni Versace, then also at the height of his popularity, also marks the end of a more artisanal and familiar fashion era, to make way for that of the large luxury groups that reign over the industry .

This is basically what can be deduced from the chronological itinerary of the exhibition “1997 FASHION BIG BANG” at the Palais Galliera, from 7 March to 16 July 2023, which presents around fifty key silhouettes, as well as videos and other crucial documents. archives. What better way to understand the history of fashion, as a visionary mirror of an era.