Back Side – Fashion from Behind at Musée Mode et Dentelle in Brussels

The exhibition 'Back Side – Fashion from Behind' at the Musée Mode et Dentelle in Brussels explores the cultural and historical significance of the back in fashion. Curated by Alexandre Samson, fashion historian and head of contemporary creation at Palais Galliera in Paris, the show features over seventy garments from the late 18th century to the present, displayed across three levels of the museum. It is a collaboration between the Musée Mode et Dentelle and Palais Galliera. The exhibition runs until March 31, 2019. Samson first proposed the concept five years ago in a public lecture. The show is structured around eleven themes, including the sensual décolleté of a 1931 Chanel evening gown, the physical and existential weight in Rick Owens' 2016 Cyclops collection, moral restraint in 19th-century corsets, and the sacredness of the body as seen in the court train worn by Queen Astrid of Belgium in 1934-35. The exhibition begins by noting that during the autumn-winter 2018 Paris prêt-à-porter shows, no magazine published a back view of any outfit among over 3,397 runway appearances, a consequence of the fast-paced fashion week demanding immediate front-facing images. This front-only approach, Samson argues, flattens the body's three-dimensionality and influences designers' creative processes. The exhibition aims to restore the back's role in fashion and body sociology.