The Living Museum of Fashion
Olivier Saillard
- Events, Paris
- Fri 06 Mar → Sat 21 Mar 2026
For 15 days, Olivier Saillard will occupy the exhibition space to recount a living history of fashion in movement, through Le Musée vivant de la Mode (The Living Museum of Fashion)—a hybrid program that is exhibition, installation, performances, and conferences, via a daily performance and 3 highlights specially conceived for the Fondation Cartier at the Place du Palais-Royal.
Recalling the Grands Magasins du Louvre, where the first “robes toutes faites” (ready-made dresses) were showcased, heralding the new era of clothing manufacturing and ready-to-wear, Saillard presents a history of everyday fashion—statutory, poetic, perceptive, and personal, long overlooked by official museums. This narrative of fashion history is told through ordinary and haute couture garments, images, bodies overlaid with texts, graphic documents, photographs, archival and torn garments, as well as bodies in motion.
As part of the series of art projects presented by the Fondation Cartier in partnership with the RATP in the Galerie Valois, Olivier Saillard extends The Living Museum of Fashion below ground level to the Belle Époque wooden-framed display windows of the Galerie Valois, located in the Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre Métro station, exit 4.
Découvrir le programme
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The Living Museum of Fashion, daily performance
From March 8 to 21st, everyday at 5 pm, The Living Museum of Fashion is an unprecedented performance through which Olivier Saillard attempts to construct an ephemeral yet attainable edifice. Specially designed and imagined for the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, this performance is included with your exhibition ticket.
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The Living Museum of Fashion, inaugural version
On March 6th and 7th at 9 pm, The Living Museum of Fashion is presented in an expanded format, featuring special guests and partners. In collectives, the live models combine speaking and performance at various locations throughout the Fondation.
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Repertoire n°1: Yves Saint Laurent 1971
On March 13th and 14th at 9 pm, discover "Repertoire n°1: Yves Saint Laurent 1971". By asking Paloma Picasso to return to the Yves Saint Laurent fashion show preceding his 1971 Spring/Summer collection, Olivier Saillard seeks to comment on the possible resuscitation of a collection through memory, narrative, and clothing, fragments of a fresco that bodies, gestures, and moments have since forgotten.
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Silent Models, with Tilda Swinton
On March 20th and 21st at 9 pm, discover "Silent Models". Whether fully embodying the pieces, or conversely, presenting a neutral stance, vacillating between absence and presence, Tilda Swinton initiates a silent dialogue with the commercial sculptures that have been used to display clothing on store racks and in museums.
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Olivier Saillard
Olivier Saillard is a graduate in art history, former director of the Palais Galliera – Paris Fashion Museum, currently director of the Alaïa Foundation and artistic, image and culture director for the J.M. Weston brand. Since then, alongside his work as a historian, he has pursued a poetic reflection presented in the form of performances, the most notable of which, Impossible Wardrobe with Tilda Swinton, inaugurated a ten-year cycle of collaboration. Similarly, Models Never Talk with a studio of famous models, established a new form in response to conventional fashion shows.
In 2018, he founded 'Moda Povera', a poetic, performative, and pedagogical clothing creation company based on the transformation of ordinary and modest garments, magnified by haute couture knowledge and techniques.
Events
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- Paris
The Alonetimes
Jennifer Walshe & Philip Venables
- Thu 16 Apr → Sat 18 Apr 2026
- Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
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- Paris
‘ILĀJ
Souffle Collectif, ensemble Mazaher & guests
- Thu 26 Mar → Sat 28 Mar 2026
- Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
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- Paris
- Sat 25 Oct 2025 → Sun 23 Aug 2026
- Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
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