La Mécanique Des Dessous, Une Histoire Indiscrète De La Silhouette (The Mechanics Of The Underwear, An Indiscreet Story Of The Silhouette)

This exhibition will explore the artifices used by women and men of the XIV th century to today, to draw their silhouette. This original project can be understood as a long history of the metamorphoses of the body subjected to the dictates of successive modes. What are the mechanisms that constrained the bodies of women in order to obtain tight waistlines until fainting, plunging throats counterbalancing a buttock raised to the extreme, enlarged hips, or flatten breasts and bellies  ? How the men themselves pushed their manhood by artificially bending the torsos, by adding shapes to the calves, or to the fly ? All these structures made of whalebone, hoops for stuffing, but even more lacing, hinges, zippers, springs or elastic fabrics hidden under the coat are exposed in a scenography by Constance Guisset. Nearly two hundred silhouettes bringing together baskets, crinolines, stomach belts, faux-cul, sheaths, “  push ups  ” from French and foreign public and private collections allow, for the first time, to tackle an unusual reading of fashion. linked to the body.