PARIS — Among the highlights of the Salon International de la Lingerie was an Arts & Lingerie exhibition by Gallerie 27, which featured two themes: “Frous-Frous Movies,” a look at the influence of lingerie in the French cinema, and “Florilege des Arts,” a display of 50 paintings, drawings, photos and sculptures inspired by lingerie.
The impact of intimate apparel on the silver screen was represented by authentic costumes and vintage posters featuring French film sirens such as Martine Carol in the 1955 movie “Lola Montès,” in which she portrayed a 19th-century dancer who was known to have a plethora of scandalous affairs, to Brigitte Bardot in the 1956 film “La Mariée est Trop Belle” (The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful), in which Bardot plays Chouchou, a country girl who is discovered by a Paris fashion magazine and becomes a top model.
“Lingerie was a big deal in the cinema of the Forties and Fifties because it was a way of showing women dressed leisurely without showing them naked,” said Patrice Gaulupeau, co-owner of the Gallerie 27 art gallery at rue Pierre Dupont. “That would have been shocking during those decades. After the Sixties nudity, everything was shown on the screen and there was less of a need to show lingerie to get people excited.”
Gaulupeau, who has been collecting vintage lingerie since 1989, also owns a private collection of 10,000 retro pieces with his partner, Ghislaine Rayer. The collection ranges from circa 1820 through the Seventies and is the inspiration for a line of vintage-looking lingerie called Nuits de Satin, which was introduced at the salon.
Rayer said reaction was strong to items that had a “special, one-of-a-kind look,” such as ornately embellished corsets inspired by the extravagant turn-of-the-century undergarments similar to those worn in “Titanic,” and lace-trimmed silk slips inspired by the Le Jazz Hot era of the Twenties.
“My favorite lingerie pieces are from the turn of the century because everything was so elaborate and ornate then,” she said. “The more the better. Women couldn’t wear enough lingerie. Their wealth was reflected in how many undergarments they could afford and they tried to wear as many petticoats as possible that would make a seductive rustling noise as they walked or stepped into a carriage.”
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The Nuits de Satin collection, as well as authentic vintage fare including swimwear, is sold at a boutique bearing the same name on rue Jean Bologne.
Rayer noted that a number of lingerie items by Nuits de Satin were inspired by French actress Michèle Mercier and her role as a fiery blonde heroine during the reign of Louis XVI in a novelette-turned-French movie series called “Angélique.” The items will be part of a storewide “Angélique” promotion at Printemps that begins Thursday.
“Everything in the promotion will be white and the theme will be based on the exploits of Angélique,” said Rayer, citing best-known stories including “Angélique and the Sultan” and “Angélique, Marquise des Anges.”