Temporary Fashion MuseumTemporary Fashion Museum

Drawing on a number of private and public collections, Precious presents exquisite products created through the fusion of fashion and fragrance over the course of the 20th century. Fragrances from classic brands like Chanel, Guerlain, Hermes, Lubin, Patou and Schiaparelli became images on the strength of collaboration with artists and designers like Salvador Dali, and with crystal companies like Baccarat and Lalique.

Perfume offers a fleeting hint of the unattainable, of haute couture. Even for those who will never afford clothing by major fashion houses, there is always the fragrance. A drop of Chanel No. 5 is enough to experience the luxury of a handmade item of clothing, however briefly. Perfumes, along with accessories and make-up, are a vital source of income for every fashion house, precisely because the market for these products is far less exclusive than that for clothing.

In the installation Precious, curator Angelique Westerhof shows how fragrances from classic brands like Chanel, Guerlain, Hermes, Lubin, Patou and Schiaparelli became images on the strength of collaboration with artists and designers like Salvador Dali, and with crystal companies like Baccarat and Lalique. Perfume bottles, delicate packaging and elegant advertisements are very much part of fashion's machinery of seduction, just like the salon and the fashion model. For they suggest an ideal, a dream of another world.

Precious was made possible due to the cooperation of Société Musée Lalique Pays Bas, Maison Jean Patou Paris, Schiaparelli Paris, Lubin Paris, Pernell Kusmus and Frédéric Marchand.