Jeans, from the street to the Ritz

From 24 November to 17 March, the Costume Museum is organising an exhibition devoted to jeans, denim and denim clothing, one of the most universal elements of contemporary fashion, especially from the second half of the 20th century to the present day.

Curated by Josep Casamartina i Parassols and Ismael Núñez Muñoz from the Antoni de Montpalau Foundation, it presents a journey through the history of denim, from its origins as a material in the 18th century, through the birth of jeans in the mid-19th century and its expansion throughout the 20thcentury and early 21st century, to its infinite formal and textile variations that are also symbolic and social.

It is an exhibition with more than two hundred pieces of clothing, accompanied by graphic documentation and accessories from the Antoni de Montpalau Foundation, which picks up the baton, thirty years later, from the temporary exhibition entitled Histoire du jeans from 1750 to 1994 that took place at the Palais Galliera Musée de la Mode et du Costume in Paris in 1994, and from the  Blu Blue-jeans Il blue popolare exhibition, which travelled from Genoa and Nîmes to the Museu Tèxtil i de la Indumentària in Barcelona in 1990.

The exhibition is divided into different areas. The indestructible fabric. The first area of the exhibition introduces the fabric known as denim, a cotton twill made with very resistant twisted threads. Classics made in the USA. This tells the story of the beginnings of what is understood as jeans today. The return to Europe. Spain was one of the most important producers, with companies in Valencia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Castilla la Mancha. Constant metamorphosis. Pleats, draping, puffing, folds, extravagant prints and all kinds of embroidery flooded luxury jeans. Jeans for a new century. This area presents jeans as the predominant garment in global clothing and addresses the ecological implications of the manufacturing process and the search for sustainable alternatives for its production. Luxe, calme et volupté. Major luxury brands have adopted and introduced jeans into the world of glamour and have generated a kaleidoscopic denim universe.

The exhibition ends with a brunch at the Ritz, which points out how denim has become a prominent part of chic fashion and gives a nod to the famous quote by Yves Saint Laurent, who proclaimed Down with the Ritz! Long live the street!