Paris, France — Driving gloves, early 20th century fencing costumes, a Hermès surfboard and Vuitton skate board trunk are just a few of the fun fashions on show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD), the delightful Decorative Arts Museum in Paris which is celebrating fashion and sports in the city that will be hosting the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games. Entitled Fashion and Sport, from One Podium to Another, the show features some 450 pieces of clothing, accessories, documents and sculptures exploring the fascinating links that have been bringing together fashion and sport from Antiquity to the present.  The exhibition reveals that some of France’s greatest fashion designers were among the pioneers that took a major interest in sports clothing also transcribing it into their couture collections, including Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin and Gabrielle Chanel. The show is curated by Sophie Lemahieu curator of the museum’s Fashion and Textile department and head of the post-1947 collections. 

The chronological narration of the show opens up with statues from Antiquity when sports and nudity were interchangeable proceeding onto the medieval era with illustrations of tournaments and a space devoted to the jeu de paume, a sport still practiced today and which is also referred to in English as real tennis. While comfort was important to the sport’s rather physical activity, the pieces on display reveal that elegance and the color white also played a major role. The aristocracy embraced physical activity in the practice of leisure activities like hunting, archery and fencing bringing about corresponding fashions. Bicycling in the 19th and early 20th century was practiced not only by men, but women, as well, paving the way for a certain emancipation with the arrival of bloomers for more convenient riding. Swimming played a crucial role in sporty fashions with the development of clingy swimming suits and eventually the bikini. Two-piece swimsuits were already in fashion in the 1930s attested to by a fetching yellow-and black top and bottom in what appears to be not particularly comfortable Jacquard woolen knit from the house of Neyret.  

Sportswear became de riguer in the second half of the 20th century with the practice of aerobics in the seventies and eighties giving it an added boost. Some stars of sport even brought fashion front and center stage with the outfits worn by André Agassi, the king of color,  and Serena Williams, remember the orange and white Puma dress with a rhinestone-encrusted strap, on the tennis court and the unforgettable ice-skating outfits of the French skater Surya Bonaly designed by French fashion living legend Christian Lacroix.  In fact some sportsmen became fashion brands in and of themselves, witness René Lacoste, Fred Perry, Chuck Taylor of the all-Star Converse basketball team and Stan Smith. The major sponsor of the exhibition is the house of Lacoste which is also celebrating its 90th anniversary. The exhibition is running until April 7th with guided tours, conferences and workshops all on the agenda. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France, + 33 (0) 1 44 55 57 50. https://madparis.fr/