Au Vestiaire: Une Histoire de Cintres (In the Cloakroom A History of Coat Hangers)

More than two hundred hangers from the end of the 19th century to the present day, will be exhibited at the Central Union of Decorative Arts. This set, whose history of forms and functions remains unsuspected, comes from the collection of Daniel Rozensztroch (collector of popular art objects), supplemented by pieces from the Fashion and Textile Museum. This modest everyday object that no one looks at, hidden at the back of a wardrobe under the king’s garment, essential to appear, this very ordinary object, is nevertheless the fabulous witness of more than a hundred years of lifestyle. Between fashion and design, it recounts social belonging, the evolution of clothing, the progress of industrialization and the immense creativity of those who design and manufacture it, peasants, craftsmen, inventors, up to creators. of today.

In 1900, the word ”  hanger  “, inspired by the architectural term that characterizes arcuate constructions and influenced by the use of the word in sewing, appeared for the first time in the ”  New Illustrated Larousse  ” to define ”  a light support intended to receive a garment  . The French Academy does not officially approve the term until 1932, while it slowly enters everyday language and sales catalogs. Previously, we spoke of ”  clothing racks “ », a word widely declined according to what is hung on it: coat hanger, trouser hanger, bodice hanger, skirt hanger, suit hanger, suit hanger, lingerie hanger, etc. Same variety in the forms that evolve according to the fashion of the moment and the type of clothing to be stored, coat with a large collar, jacket with shoulder pads, cape or high-cut bodice… Professional, military and ecclesiastical outfits have their appropriate supports, we even invent some who bend for the journey. Craftsmen and manufacturers play with wire, the essences and colors of wood, raw, polished, varnished, turned, cut, then with all new plastic materials, each putting their ingenuity, dexterity and sense of aesthetics at the service of this banal object.

From the 1950s, the wardrobe became simpler, the hanger became more synthetic but did not lose its diversity. The proliferation of materials, the creativity and audacity of contemporary designers largely compensate for this restriction. Around this everyday accessory, they in turn indulge in astonishing exercises in style, treating it as an inseparable element of fashion, which is displayed and which we finally look at. They thus take over from those who, at the beginning of the century, offered all their talent to this humble object, witness to their life and their time…