Conceived as a response to the often normative approaches to femininity in fashion exhibitions, Un vestiaire à soi. Féminités dissidentes au 19e siècle aims to fill a significant gap in the history of fashion. The exhibition reveals how the increasingly pronounced adoption of menswear codes accompanied a profound desire to transform the place of women in 19th-century society, particularly in France and the Anglo-Saxon world.
Rich in nearly 500 works, the exhibition presents numerous fashion pieces and emblematic accessories: riding habits, trousers, tailored suits, cravats, bows, top hats… The exhibition also reveals an exceptional ensemble never before exhibited: the wardrobe of Rosa Bonheur, shown in its entirety. The route gives pride of place to iconography, with a selection of paintings, fashion posters and 150 previously unpublished amateur photographs, brought together for the occasion. This confrontation between silhouettes and images offers a better understanding of the cultural and social meanings of the fashions of the period, and highlights how the masculinisation of women's fashion questions the gender binaries that structured 19th-century society.
The exhibition aims to renew the view of the evolution of women's fashion in the 19th century. From women wearing menswear to the fashions of artistic and lesbian Paris of 1900, through working women in tailored suits and boots, it examines the impact of dissident expressions of femininity and the way they helped redefine women's wardrobes of this period. The route brings into dialogue major historical figures, from Marie-Antoinette to Natalie Clifford Barney, from George Sand to Rosa Bonheur, with a multitude of anonymous individuals revealed through vernacular photography, inviting visitors to identify with and appropriate this heritage. Beyond its historical roots, the exhibition resonates with contemporary issues and invites reflection on the place of clothing and fashion in the transformation of identities and social roles, in the 19th as in the 21st century.