Introductory note: within the Louvre building are three other, separate museums of decorative arts, fashion, and advertizing. They’re run by the Union des Arts Décoratifs, which is also in charge of the nearby Nissim de Camondo house-museum. Separate admission charges and spaces, so I’m counting them as separate museums (although you can buy a combined ticket to visit all four for the jaw-dropping price of 17.50 euro).
Ok, so, the Musée de la Mode et du Textile is essentially a special exhibition space (two exhibitions a year). It’s currently showing the work of Madeleine Vionnet from the ‘10’s to the ‘40’s, with well-organized signage in French and English, which I’m sure would have been very informative if I hadn’t spent the entire time thinking either “pretty pretty WANT” or “does bias-cut crepe ever really look good on anyone?” Plentiful vintage photographs and film clips let me know that the answer to that question is, reassuringly and yet oddly enough, “nope – not even on the models employed by the designer!”
Aside from the exhibition space, there are two other small, but packed, rooms of jewelry. You could spend a long time here, learning about materials and stylistic history from the Middle Ages to the present, or you could just wander around muttering “Shiny! Shiny! Ooooh, rare example of First Empire shiny!” like I did.
