Fashion watch: What is luxury? A Paris exhibition offers an answer

Chinese designer Guo Pei's gold dress is part of the exhibition. It shows that luxury and style often go hand-in-hand. Photo: Instagram/@guopei

Luxury means different things to different people. While some see it in a more abstract form like the value of time, others place great importance in material objects.

A new exhibition in Paris' Louvre seeks to define the term. Put together by the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs (and running until May 2, 2021), it brings together 100 luxurious items spanning centuries and civilisations.

Read more: Metropolitan Museum Of Art explores fashion's complex relationship with time

​​​​​​The collection on display is eclectic as they come. That said, fashion plays an important role in the exhibition.

From Pierre Hardy sneakers to Supreme’s bright red check-in wheelie for Rimowa and a gold dress by Chinese designer Guo Pei, it shows that luxury and style often go hand-in-hand.

Read more: New Coco Chanel exhibition explores her label's pre-Karl Lagerfeld era

"Luxury, before being a material reality, was above all an anthropological, philosophical and cultural notion, and that is what we wanted to highlight through our works," says Olivier Gabet, director of Musee Des Arts Decoratifs and general curator of the exhibition. in an interview with Paris Modes Insider.

"We try to make our visitors reflect precisely on this evolution and ductility of the word ‘luxury', which is very strong and from the fourth millennium BC, which was, I believe, the oldest work that we present in the exhibition until the day before yesterday, with the Jacquemus piece behind me, dating from 2020."

Check out the video below for the full interview.