Olivier Saillard Brings Fashion to Life at Fondation Cartier

Fashion thrives in motion, yet in museums it is often frozen — draped on mannequins, isolated from the bodies and gestures that once gave it meaning.

This March in Paris, Olivier Saillard sets out to restore that lost movement and presents a history of everyday fashion often overlooked by official museums. From 6 to 21 March 2026, the former director of the Palais Galliera will take over the exhibition space of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain with Olivier Saillard, Le Musée Vivant de la Mode, a project that resists categorisation.

Saillard has long questioned how fashion might be preserved without being embalmed. Over two decades of performative work, he has explored alternatives to the static authority of the display case. Part exhibition, part performance, Le Musée Vivant de la Mode will unfold daily, with Saillard's narrative of fashion history told through ordinary and haute couture garments, graphic documents, photographs, and archival and torn garments.

Models in beige linen dresses functioning as mobile display screens will move through the galleries wearing fragments of old garments, obsolete accessories, and overlooked pieces that never made it into the official fashion canon. Saillard will deliver a daily performance weaving these marginalised objects into a broader narrative of fashion collections, challenging what gets remembered and what gets discarded.

Saillard will also revisit with Paloma Picasso a defining moment in fashion: Yves Saint Laurent's 1971 Spring/Summer collection. Picasso's turban and padded-shoulder jacket captured the wartime inspiration behind the show, which reimagined 1940s practical wardrobes as elegant, modern garments. Initially shocking critics, the collection later became a landmark in contemporary fashion, showing how clothing carries history. By inviting Picasso to return, Saillard explores how a fashion show can live on through memory rather than commerce.

The final performance, Mannequins du Silence, will pair Tilda Swinton with mannequins, long used to replace living bodies in shop windows and museums. Through a quiet dressing ritual, she will highlight the tension between presence and absence, showing the fragility of clothing and the gap between garment and wearer.

Saillard's intervention will extend beyond the Fondation's walls to occupy the Belle Époque wooden vitrines of the Galerie Valois within the Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre metro station.