The MFAH positions fashion as art with an installation of 36 fashion ensembles in galleries across the Museum. All were selected from the landmark debut of Louvre Couture—Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces, the first-ever fashion exhibition at the Louvre Museum. The ensembles represent work by contemporary and historic fashion houses and are paired at the MFAH with historic, modern, and contemporary masterworks from the MFAH collections. The Houston presentation also features several rare loans from the Louvre’s holdings of decorative arts.

 

In the galleries of Louvre Couture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, a printed map directs guests on self-guided discovery of the fashion pieces, installed in the Beck and Kinder Buildings.

 

Ensembles have been selected from heritage houses such as Balenciaga, Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Versace, Louis Vuitton, and Vivienne Westwood, as well as from important designers established in this century, including Thom Browne, Erdem, Jacquemus, and Iris Van Herpen.

 

The earliest work, Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 Robe Mondrian, is shown with Piet Mondrian’s 1918 Composition with Grid #1 from the MFAH collections. Additional MFAH pairings include André-Charles Boulle’s 17th-century Longcase Clock with Givenchy’s 1990–91 Pantsuit; the elaborate 18th-century folding screen Biombo with Views of Mexico City with a 1990 ensemble by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel; and Louise Nevelson’s 1969 sculptural abstraction Mirror Image I with a 2024 Yohji Yamamoto ensemble.