LES ARLESIENNES, Musée de la mode et du costume, Fragonard, Arles, France

06 juillet 2025 - 31 décembre 2025

Musée de la mode et du costume, Fragonard, Arles

16 Rue de la Calade - 13200 Arles France

For its first exhibition, Collections-Collection, the museum is bringing together two collections located at opposite ends of Provence. The result is an exceptionally rich celebration of the history of French Mediterranean costume and textiles. Taking a chronological approach, the exhibition offers visitors a broad overview of fashion in Provence since the 18th century. Emblematic costumes and major pieces from the Costa and Pascal collections will finally take their place in the showcases of this long-awaited new museum.

At the request of Fragonard, Charles Fréger has created the only permanent work for the future Musée de la Mode et du Costume, featuring Arles women against the light. Somewhere between the real and the imaginary, this internationally acclaimed photographer focuses on groups of people and their outward symbols. Insatiable, he travels the globe and produces series of flamboyant portraits that capture the individual in his or her environment and question the creation of archetypal figures. Somewhere between poetry and painterly rigour, his work gives pride of place to the collective, whether in uniforms, work clothes or colourful masquerade costumes.

« (…)This installation, with its backlit screens responding to each other and shadows moving from one to the next, draws the viewer into a ballet of meticulous, orderly preparations. The choice of video, says Charles Fréger, ‘allows us to project ourselves around these gestures, their finesse, their precision and a certain discipline in their movements’. It also brings out the individuality of the ceremony, with each woman having her own very personal way of dressing up.
As in many communities, the moment when people get dressed is a kind of preparation, a game of awareness.(…)

(…)This work reflects the photographer’s dearest aspirations: to bring out the individual in the collective. Here, as in his other series, the women each convey a personal relationship with the costume, in the thousand details of the preparations that escape the sight of the costumes being worn. Revived in 1930, the art of Arles costume-making is finally coming out of the drawers, and this commission is a reminder of just how much its practice demands the utmost patience and know-how.(…)

Text: Pierre Morio

https://musee-mode-costume.fragonard.com/