Miren Arzalluz Rethinks Fashion at the Palais Galliera

The museum’s sun-drenched neo-Classical and neo-Renaissance façades at the corner of avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie and rue de Galliera have never seemed to glisten so brightly. The 19 th -century building housing the prestigious Société de l’Histoire du Costume fashion collection has been closed for renovations since 2018. After becoming the Fashion Museum of the City of Paris in 2013, it reopens this year with the “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” show in its ground-floor galleries and the new, vaulted rooms looking out onto the garden. Spanish-born Miren Arzalluz, the museum’s director since January 2018, designed its main lines. Why did the Palais Galliera close for a two-year refurbishment? After a first restoration campaign in 2013, my predecessor, Olivier Saillard, thought that the ground-floor spaces, usually set aside for archive storage or staff, could be used to expand our 700 square metres of exhibition space and double the museum’s…