This museum is a treasure trove of texiles and is attached to the Museum of Decorative Arts which is also well worth a visit. The collection includes Coptic textiles and some early Syrian woven silk. There is a huge archive of Lyon silk brocade and oriental carpets.
The Coptic pieces were not mere fragments and were in excellent condition. One striking piece was a blue curtain decorated with fishes from 2-3AD.
Mingling with the permanent collection was an exhibition of paper works by Isabelle de Borchgrave. She had taken Fortuny as her inspiration and there were three of his original dresses including a Delphos one in a showcase. She had created paper three-dimensional dresses and jackets that were stitched in some cases and printed with Fortuny designs. One display case contained Lyon silk patternbooks and a pillow made from paper that was used to display a pair of her paper shoes. The exhibition is being extended for a month.
Meanwhile upstairs was an exhibition of Franck Sorbier, a couturier who was unknown to me. This was a 10 year retrospective of his time in haute couture and the exhibition continues until 20th September 2009. The 170 garments were really well displayed, chromatically and not chronologically, and videos of his catwalk shows were projected on the wall of the staircase showing models wearing the dresses in the exhibition. Many of his garments were made from constructed material with pieces being added and machined over many times. This is what I found fascinating, as it is a technique used by us embroiderers.
There was little in the way of postcards or an affordable catalogue to buy but it is worth looking this man up on the net and watching the videos of his work on his website. Isabelle de Borchgrave is also worth an investigation on the net. It was a very fortuitous and unexpected visit and I highly recommend it.