Dear Shaded Viewers,
Starting April 5, the CNCS will celebrate with a special exhibition the creativity of Christian Lacroix as a costume designer and more recently as a stage director and set designer. With over 120 costumes from various stage genres—such as theater, opera, and dance—and numerous iconic documents, “Christian Lacroix and the Stage” will immerse visitors in the unique universe of the fashion designer.
This year will also mark the launch for the National Center for Costume and Stage of a collection of books titled “The CNCS Notebooks,” co-published with Silvana Editions. Dedicated to creators, stage costume professions, or iconic costumes from the collection, the first issue, was released on January 15, 2025, and dedicated to the great costume designer Patrice Cauchetier. He passed away on July 15, 2024, and was a collaborator of renowned stage directors such as Jean-Pierre Vincent, Jean-Marie Villégier, Alain Françon, and others.
The CNCS is equipped with a permanent space
Alongside La Scène – a permanent space dedicated to scenography – and the collection dedicated to the dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev, the CNCS opened a 180 m² permanent space February 2025. Costumes, accessories, videos, models, textile samples, and illustrations will allow, through a pedagogical, sensitive, and sensory approach, to reveal the treasures of the CNCS collections and learn more about the history and specifics of stage costumes.
What is a stage costume?
Opera, theater, dance, musical comedy, cabaret, … With this first room, visitors will discover, through the CNCS collections, the richness and variety of costumes created in connection with each stage discipline. As a dramatic object, serving a text or narrative, the costume allows, among other things, to characterize the character while offering the artist a “second skin” to personify this incarnation.
The costumes presented will highlight key concepts such as interpretation, which translates into artistic and temporal choices of stage productions, to which a great diversity of artistic styles deployed by costume creators responds.
A Brief History of Stage Costumes through the CNCS Collections
The conservation of stage costumes is a relatively recent endeavor within museum and heritage collections. Consequently, significant gaps prevent a comprehensive tracing of the history of costumes since their first appearances on stage.
However, through about fifteen costumes from the CNCS collections, this room will present an overview of the major evolutions in their forms and aesthetics. Iconic pieces such as an authentic 18th-century costume worn on the stage of the Comédie-Française, to the costumes from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, including a rare piece from the creation of Aïda when it entered the Paris Opera repertoire, and a high-fashion costume for the role of Lady Macbeth signed by Thierry Mugler, are some of the testimonies to this ever-evolving and reinterpreted narrative.
Various mediation elements complement these spaces and explain the stages of costume creation, the processes of their conservation, and their valorization at the CNCS.
Scenography:
Marco Mencacci, in collaboration with Philippe Dubessay for graphics, Valérie Bodier for lighting.
Curatorship:
Delphine Pinasa, the collections department, the mediation department, and the public department of the CNCS.
Christian Lacroix and the Stage,
A Special Exhibition
Celebrating the creativity of the costume designer, the thematic and chronological journey focuses on the years when Christian Lacroix dedicated himself fully to the stage, following the closure of his fashion house. It will take visitors on an evocative stroll through the history of fashion, interpreted by the hand and eye of the designer.
His work, characterized by numerous reinterpretations of the past, particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries, resonates with the desire to “go back in time” that is perceptible in all his creations. Evolving with opportunities, between theater, dance, opera, and even revues and musical comedies, the designer has recently added experiences as a stage director and set designer to his artistic practice.
In total, Christian Lacroix will have signed nearly a hundred productions in France and throughout Europe. The exhibition will give prominence to the numerous artistic contributions that the creator has woven over the years, including faithful collaborations and partnerships with assistants, stage directors, set designers, and fashion workshops, notably those of the Comédie-Française and the Caraco workshop with which Christian Lacroix regularly works.
On the occasion of this exhibition, documentation, archives, and drawings of the designer preserved at the CNCS will be showcased following an inventory and processing work carried out in 2024.
Exhibition presented from April 5, 2025, to January 4, 2026
Artistic Direction: Christian Lacroix
Scenography: Véronique Dollfus
Curatorship: Delphine Pinasa
Catalogue: Gallimard Editions
Launch of the Collection “The CNCS Notebooks”
With the book “Patrice Cauchetier, Costume Designer,” the National Center for Costume and Stage launches, in co-publication with Silvana Editions, its collection “The CNCS Notebooks.” This new collection will be dedicated to creators, stage costume professions, or iconic costumes from the collection, with the goal of publishing one book per year.
Costume designer Patrice Cauchetier has marked the history and aesthetics of the performing arts over the past sixty years. He began his career with Patrice Chéreau in 1968, and from 1971, he initiated a long collaboration with Jean-Pierre Vincent that continued until Vincent’s death in 2020. He designed costumes for nearly forty of Vincent’s productions, including “The Marriage of Figaro” (Beaumarchais, Chaillot, 1987) and “The Tricks of Scapin” (Avignon, 1990), which earned him a Molière nomination. He won the Molière Award for Best Costume Designer for “The Guilty Mother” (Beaumarchais, Comédie-Française, 1990).
At the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, where he was a professor, he met Pierre Strosser and designed costumes for most of his operas, including “Carmen,” “The Magic Flute,” and “The Ring of the Nibelung.” He also met Jean-Marie Villégier there and created costumes for all of his productions, including those for “Atys” (Quinault, Lully), a work that became legendary for the quality of its staging, music, and the splendor of its costumes.
He also worked with Alain Françon, Joël Jouanneau, Jacques Lassalle, Yves Beaunesne, Marcel Maréchal, Jean Jourdheuil, Claude Régy, as well as choreographers Francine Lancelot, Béatrice Massin, and Odile Duboc. He collaborated on more than two hundred productions, both for theater and dance and opera. He passed away in July 2024.
Release Date: January 15, 2025
Available now at the CNCS and Comédie-Française online stores
Author: Anne Verdier
Pages: 144 pages, recto-verso
Co-Publication: Silvana Editoriale / CNCS
Price: €25
