Every year, the Museum of Fashion and Textile (part of the Decorative Art Museum, Paris) presents a new look on its collections. The 1999-2000 exhibition was Garde-Robes (Wardrobes). The display pays tribute to donors and analyses clothing behaviours from personalities and non in about forty pieces.
A history of tastes, uses and style emerges in a perfectly conscious or unconscious way emerges from the pieces displayed, forming a sort of visual biography of fashion.
The exhibition is split into two parts: first “the rules of the game” defines the very strict dress codes established throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the basis for the aesthetic trends of the 20th century. The “Portrait Gallery”, the second part of the exhibition, underlines the individualities and highlights both their calculated affinities and their spontaneous desires.