Presented as a large sewing workshop, this exhibition offers an opportunity to explore jeans, to discover their inside and outside, to understand their success, and to analysewhat is at stake in today’s world.
Where do jeans come from?
Before being a garment, jeans are a fabric. Its story is as much the story of a fabric as it is the story of the words that designate it and that have traveled from Europe to America. Besides, our jeans are not made of jeans but of denim! This exhibition offers an entry in matter(s), where visitors will encounter a wall of buttocks, James Dean, doll clothes in denim, and a burst of jeans.
Jeans, a universal story
Dive into the wonderful adventure of jeans, from the Far West to the present day, with a selection of American jeans collectibles from the end of the 19th century to 1945 and a large audio-visual projection that associates jeans with the history of the 20th and 21st centuries through music, protest movements, and film icons.
Jeans, a technical garment
The industrial and technical world: we enter the world of clothing. From the cotton harvest to the finished product, all the steps in the manufacture of jeans are explained in detail and the fabric library allows you to explore the diversity of denim varieties.
Jeans and excess…
Over-consumption of water and pesticides in cotton farming, workers’ working conditions, over-production, and fast fashion … in an immersive projection space, a shock film sheds a disturbing light on the production and consumption of jeans.
What alternatives can enable us to buy ‘clean jeans’?
Culture and choice of fibres, dyeing techniques, production methods, ways of consumption… Presentation of initiatives, research, and innovations that exist to reduce the social and environmental impact of jeans.
Jeans and fashion
In this collective playground, you discover the world of fashion by choosing an outfit and by taking part in a real fashion show on the big screen. Pieces by couturiers and young designers reveal today’s denim trends.
