FASHION HERITAGE: Olivier Saillard had been questioning the relevance of his Moda Povera project within the fashion ecosystem. Not intended for sale, the idea was to highlight “ordinary” clothes by reinterpreting them using the techniques and fabrications of haute couture.
When the fashion historian lost his mother two years ago, an idea took hold. Should he send her wardrobe, of no inherent value, to charity? Or should he give it a new life, befitting of his cherished parent? Renée, a mother of six and a taxi driver, had bought her clothes over the years from out-of-town superstores near her home in the east of France after town center boutiques were shuttered, but she loved and cared for them, he explained.
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“When my mother died, I kept all her clothes because I thought it was incongruous, as a fashion curator who had inventoried thousands of fashion collections from various eras, to do nothing with her wardrobe,” he said. “One day it occurred to me this was what we should do with Moda Povera.”
He continued, “We realized as we were doing it, no one works on the intimate side, the memory of clothing. Fashion is a model based on newness.”
In an hourlong presentation that was really more of a performance, Saillard helped his model and friend Axelle Doué put on each look one by one, delicately smoothing down the folds and carefully brushing hair loosened from her chignon back into place.
A narrator read out Saillard’s written description of each, in French, a form of poetry that played on nostalgia for the pieces transformed, with humble T-shirts turned into evening gowns, winter coats tailored into structured jackets and handkerchiefs made into delicate gloves. At the same time, the text (abbreviated English translations aside) was like a lesson in couture vocabulary, echoing the educational vocation of Moda Povera, which aims to help keep couture knowhow alive for future generations.
There was barely a dry eye in the oval salon of the National Archives — where 14 centuries of historic documents including the Trial of the Templars and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen are stored — at the end of the presentation.
“I’m happy that everyone has come to see this performance, because we have nothing to sell and nothing to offer except a moment of introspection,” Saillard said.