The following thesis aim is to examine and acknowledge a subject and material that has been overlooked in museological research. More specifically, the visual and material embodiment of fashion. This study has thus examined three Swedish fashion exhibitions, namely Augusta Lundin: Sveriges första modehus, Nordens Paris: om NK:s Franska damskrädderi 1902–1966 as well as Modest Fashion, and their portrayal and depiction of fashion. The study was conducted based on observations and interviews, and placed in relation to gender perspective as well as stereotyping, with a focus regarding the narrative of women. An important finding in the examination of these exhibitions, has been their depiction of women as active and with participation in the public sphere. The exhibitions also emphasize the symbolic value of fashion and how apparel is and has been used by women as a social practice. The analyse has shown the multidimensional meaning of fashion and its cultural value, not least in portraying women of the past, present, and future. Museums can thus be considered as important platforms, where the embodiment of fashion can be contextualized and where its cultural value can be recognized. This is a two-year’s master thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

Both the fashion magazine and the fashion exhibition are powerful and authoritative sites for the representation, interpretation, and construction of fashion. Despite various intersections between the two, their relationship has remained relatively unstudied. This thesis aims to reveal and problematize the relationship between leading institutions in the United Kingdom: British Vogue and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). An analysis of British Vogue’s content and the V&A’s fashion exhibitions of Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion (2004) and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2015) is employed in order to unpack how these institutions are involved in defining and institutionalizing what fashion is in a national context. This institutional analysis considers the wider implications of the conception of British fashion produced by these institutions in regard to class, race, and gender, as Great British fashion is dependent on a system of representations that reveals hierarchies and exclusions.

Ce travail de recherche en muséologie porte sur la présentation de la parfumerie commerciale française dans les musées publics en France que ce soient des musées du parfum ou des musées d’art. En débutant par l’histoire de la présentation des produits commerciaux au musée depuis le milieu du XIXe siècle jusqu’aux expositions de marques de luxe au Costume Institute du Metropolitan Museum of Art dans les années 1980, cette étude se focalise par la suite sur la naissance et le développement de différents projets muséaux publics en lien avec la parfumerie (Château de Chamerolles, Esprit du Parfum à Chartres, Cour des Senteurs de Versailles, Collection Sylvie Guerlain-Traditions Verrières à la ville d’Eu) ainsi que sur l’essor des expositions de marques de luxe, dont de parfumerie, dans les musées publics (Chanel, Dior, Roger & Gallet). Les stratégies des pouvoirs publics, celles des marques de luxe ainsi que les motivations des musées publics qui accueillent les expositions de parfumerie sont analysées à tour de rôle. Une étude à part est dédiée au Musée International de la Parfumerie (1989) à Grasse qui est un musée de référence en France : à son histoire, à sa section contemporaine, à ses partenaires ainsi qu’à ses concurrents comme les parfumeries touristiques Fragonard, Molinard ou Galimard. Le dernier chapitre porte sur la programmation temporaire des grands magasins qui, en privilégiant l’art contemporain et les industries de la mode, développent de véritables équipements culturels à même de concurrencer les musées publics jusqu’à dissoudre progressivement les frontières entre un espace muséal et un espace commercial. / This research in Museum studies focuses on exhibitions of French commercial perfumery in perfume and art museums throughout France. Starting with the history of exhibitions of commercial items in museums from the mid-19th century until luxury brands exhibitions at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1980s, the study examines the birth and the development of different museum projects related to the French perfume industry (Château de Chamerolles, Esprit du Parfum in Chartres, Cour des Senteurs of Versailles, Collection Sylvie Guerlain-Traditions Verrières in the town of Eu) as well as the growth of luxury brands’ exhibitions in public museums (Chanel, Dior, Roger & Gallet). Public authorities’ policies, perfume brands’ strategies or motivations of public museums which host such exhibitions are analyzed one by one. The case of the International Museum of Perfumery (1989) in Grasse deserves a study in its own right: I consider the history of the museum, the museum’s section of the 20th century perfumery, the role of corporate sponsorship in enriching museum collections as well as the local competition from private perfume museums set up by Fragonard, Molinard or Galimard brands. The last chapter focuses on French department stores and their fashion exhibitions’ programs capable of competing with public museums’ attractions and leading to the progressive blurring of boundaries between a museum space and a commercial one.