Centre National du Costume de Scène: A Visit

Two weeks ago I went on a guided visit of the CNCS (Centre National du Costume de Scène) in Moulins.  Such a beautiful and inspiring collection of costumes for dance, theatre and opera!!  They also regularly host workshops for adults and children, including live-model drawing and making a croquis, just to name two options. Here's the link if you want to check out their website; they have a digital archive with photos available of some of their collection.

There is one collection which has items on permanent display on the ground floor and the other parts of the museum rotate for a spring/summer display and a fall/winter display, with various themes.  The permanent collection is dedicated to Rudolf Noureev, the ballet star and choregrapher.  They display many of his costumes, as well as personal items he collected over the years, art, clothing, furniture, etc.

The museum allows photography, just no flash, so I took a couple photos from the Noureev collection:

 

The costumes above, for example, are from the 1981 Opéra National de Paris production of Don Quichotte, designed by Nicholas Georgiadis.

The guided tour I took is on the theme of Couturiers de la danse and will be on display until November 1st.  You can do a virtual visit of the collection from their website here.  It's organized by theme: Opera, Dance, Theatre, or Accessories.  I can't praise this museum enough and the guided visit was both informative and entertaining.  Due to COVID-19, group numbers were limited and advanced reservations strongly recommended; of course we were all masked, but there was a special audio/microphone system in place that worked pretty well overall and meant the guide didn't have to yell to be heard.

There are really so many excellent pieces that you can see on their website; I just want to share some of my favorites here.

I was really taken with these costumes made for the opera Kill Bambi, performed by the Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, as choregraphed by Jeroen Verbruggen.  The fur, the head pieces, the jewelry: everything!!

I also loved these skeletal lace costumes designed by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy for the Opéra national de Paris' performance of Bolero:

I have many other favorites, but I thought I'd end with a couple of photos from more famous designers/designs.  I think you'll recognize the distinctive styles of these designers/design houses.

 

The distinctive rose from House Dior.  This particular design is by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Opéra de Rome performing the opera Nuit Blanche.  Sorry the title is in French and not Italian - the CNCS is in France!

 

 

And the black and white numbers above were designed by Karl Lagerfeld for the Opéra national de Paris again, performing the Brahams-Schönberg Quartet.

Finally, on the left, la marinière design by Jean-Paul Gaultier (sailors!) and on the right, the corselet designed by Yves Saint Laurent for Notre Dame de Paris.

You can see more photos of these costumes - as well as others - if you check out the exhibition on-line here; it's in English.  Here's hoping you enjoy the costumes at the CNCS as much as I did and that it may bring you inspiration!!