A Biographical Wardrobe

Revered fashion historian, curator and museum director Olivier Saillard is known for his forward-thinking fashion presentations. Rather than soulless mannequins, his exhibitions feature minimalist installations that evoke the living body. His performances breathe life into historical garments. Saillard and Swinton have collaborated on several such performances, with Swinton in the role of living 'socle', or foundation.

Her timeless, gender-fluid appearance offers an effortless capacity to incarnate an array of historical eras and embodies a gamut of people and characters. Such as The Impossible Wardrobe, featuring unwearable objects from the collection of the Galliera fashion museum in Paris, and Embodying Pasolini, in which, by reanimating costumes known for their brief lives captured on film, Swinton creates an unspoken dialogue with these ongoing traces from Pasolini’s iconic work.

A Biographical Wardrobe
In the performance A Biographical Wardrobe, which takes place in the exhibition in Eye, Saillard and Swinton together tell the story of Swinton’s personal wardrobe, comprising garments worn by her forebears and countless costumes and outfits she has worn in films, in the public arena and continues to wear in her private life.

Olivier Saillard
Olivier Saillard (Pontarlier, 1967) is one of France’s leading fashion historians and curators and was head of fashion at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Saillard has curated exhibitions at the Musée de la Mode in Paris and Marseille, the Musée Bordelle, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Saillard collaborated with Tilda Swinton on the live performance/art exhibition The Impossible Wardrobe at the Palais de Tokyo (2012), featuring pieces worn by Marie Antoinette and Napoleon. A year later, Saillard created a costume for Swinton live in Eternity Dress (2013). Their most cinematic performance is Embodying Pasolini (2022-2025), in which Swinton wears costumes from Pasolini’s films.