1997 Fashion Big Bang at Palais Galliera

Martin Margiela, "Stockman" collection, ready-to-wear Spring-Summer 1997 © Palais Galliera, Paris / Paris Musées

From the bodies deformed by Comme des Garçons with the Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body collection and Martin Margiela’s conceptualised garments in the Stockman collection to Raf Simons’s redefinition of the canons of male beauty in the Black Palms collection, 1997 was a a watershed year in the history of contemporary fashion.

 Vogue Paris defined the 1997 Spring-Summer haute couture season as the ‘Big Bang’ that Paris needed in order to regain its place as the international capital of fashion in an era of economic crisis and intense global competition.

1997 also saw the arrival in haute couture of star designers from the 1980s, such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler, while legendary French fashion houses were taken over by a new generation of British designers, with Alexander McQueen at Givenchy and John Galliano at Christian Dior.

From 7 March to 16 July 2023, the Palais Galliera is organising an exhibition focusing on the year with over 50 silhouettes from its collections, along with loans from museums and international collectors and fashion houses.