Coinciding with the donation from Berlin art collector Erika Hoffmann, the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) is exhibiting 20 selected items of clothing and accessories from over 20 years of Parisian fashion history.

Since the 19th century, Paris has offered many designers a platform to develop their creativity and to present their collections to an international audience. The early 1980s were characterised by optimism and daring opulence, which found its expression especially through fashion. The creative centre of this haute couture era was dominated by Manfred “Thierry” Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, whose designs shaped a new, strong and confident image of women. Their designs were expressed in broad-shouldered styles featuring accentuated silhouettes, as well as eye-catching materials and colours.

Art and fashion

Parisian fashion has always been a source of inspiration for the art collector and textile entrepreneur Erika Hoffmann. Her profession and interest in contemporary fashion and art mean she is well-networked in artist circles. She has frequently travelled to the fashion capital to visit the designers’ boutiques. She gave 22 of the outfits she acquired there to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Kunstgewerbemuseum, which is now presenting them for the first time.

In addition to designs produced by de Castelbajac, Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent, the focus lies on early pieces by the young Thierry Mugler. He opened his first boutique in 1978 at the Place des Victoires. For him, women were “Glamazonen” – glamourous and self-confident Amazons. A fine example of this in the exhibition is a breastplate with a matching zippered skirt from the 1980 Spring/Summer Collection. During this period, for each season, Erika Hoffmann acquired airy day dresses, stand-out jumpsuits, fashionable everyday wear and statement-making evening attire by the up-and-coming designer.

In Andy Warhol’s studio

She wore one of these day dresses, a beige-brown sheath dress with a continuous strip of buttons at the back, when she met with Andy Warhol in his studio in New York. Erika and her husband, Rolf Hoffmann, had begun collecting contemporary art in the 1960s, pursuing their personal tastes. The couple had commissioned a double portrait from Warhol, and for their session with him, Erika Hoffmann decided to wear her Mugler dress. A photo documentation of the day with the artist is also presented in the exhibition.

The central exhibit in the presentation, a paper vest created by Maison Margiela, attests to Erika Hoffmann’s two passions: collecting avant-garde art and her interest in contemporary fashion. The vest, produced in 1994, embodies the experimental approach in Martin Margiela’s work, which primarily reflects his conceptual design process as the boundaries between art and fashion blur.

Erika Hoffmann’s gift

Apart from the 22 items on view, Hoffmann’s gift to the Kunstgewerbemuseum comprises 21 other pieces of clothing produced from designs based on the Russian Constructivists of the 1920s. A future presentation of these items is planned.