1st IN FASHION

A new exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris explores the history of fashion through the lens of Harper’s Bazaar

- Stephen Mooallem

ON FEBRUARY 28, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will mark the reopening of its newly renovated fashion galleries with an exhibition devoted to Harper’s Bazaar. First in Fashion will examine the history of fashion as it has unfolded in the pages of the magazine, spotlighting a collection of watershed moments and seismic shifts in the way we dress, think, and live as they were captured in—and, in some cases, instigated by—Bazaar. Overseen by MAD director Olivier Gabet and curators Éric Pujalet-Plàa and Marianne Le Galliard, with Bazaar’s former editor in chief, Glenda Bailey, and design director, Elizabeth Hummer, the exhibition charts Bazaar’s evolution from a 19th-century literary lifestyle journal that billed itself as “a repository for fashion, pleasure, and instruction” into the first modern fashion magazine.

The name of the exhibition is fitting: Since its founding in 1867, Bazaar has been present for an epoch of ‘firsts’ in fashion, as well as myriad creative, cultural, and social revolutions.