The Triennale di Milano presents the exhibition Napoleone e l'Impero della moda, una visione a 360° gradi dell'Età Napoleonica illustrated by period dress. For the first time, starting from the Napoleonic period, fashion is being recognized as an instrument of power, the first fashion victims and specialized press are born, and the foundations of the modern fashion industry as we know it today are laid.
From June 16 to September 12 a journey into the everyday life during that period shall be staged: the different dressing styles according to the day, season or occasion, from weddings to maternity, from birth and death.
The transitions are laid out by Cristina Barreto and Martin Lancaster, textile researchers and consultants for the Napoleonic period, and curators of the exhibition who loaned their private collection for the show: years of passion illustrated by thousands of prints, hundreds of pieces of clothing and accessories and a historic archive of specialized press.
This exhibition tells the story of the Napoleonic era through period dress and reveals an original aspect of the leader Napoleon who used fashion as an instrument of power. It was precisely in the Napoleonic era that "fashion passion" was born in which the same dynamics and the rites - that are still alive today - developed. From the power of certain tailors to the choice of hairdressers, in a trail of windows looking onto shops and the press: it is the birth of specialization, a whole able to create the first fashion victims in history.
A total of 51 pieces that represent the everydayness and social transformations generated by the industrial and commercial development resulting from the new political order in Europe and the colonies. Such transformations made their mark on the world and it is still visible today.
Beginning with the Directoire, sensual and extravagant, the visitor passes through the galleries where the fashion of the Bourbonist Restoration, instead, is sober and respectable, to finally brush up against the puritanical Victorian modesty. The radical transformation of men's fashion keeps step with women's fashion. Virile and democratic, the military figure is omnipresent throughout this period. Finally, a broad array of prints, images and objects from the period and a historic archive of Costume Parisien, the first fashion magazine in history, complete and contribute to the explanation of this journey in history, illuminating us, not without a hint of irony, with regard to the origins of today's fashion system.
Author of this transformation, Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to understand the use of fashion as an instrument of power.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Comune di Milano, Assessorato della Moda, Design
Eventi.
Napoleone e l'Impero della moda
Napoleon The Empire of Fashion
June 16 - September 12, 2010
Triennale di Milano
Curated by Cristina Barreto and Martin Lancaster
Hours Tuesday-Sunday 10.30-20.30
Thursday and Friday 10.30-23.00
Admission: €8
Press conference June 14 at 11.30 am
Images and texts may be downloaded from the website www.press.triennale.org
Triennale di Milano Press and Communication Office
viale Alemagna 6 Antonella La Seta
T. 02-724341 Mattia Pozzoni, Marco Martello
F. 02-89010693 T. 02-72434205/247
www.triennale.org F. 02-72434239
press@triennale.org
Cayenne
Press Office
Gloria Gerosa
T. 02 72533221
gloria.gerosa@cayenne.it
Owner of the Collections
LANCASTER & BARRETO SRL
Cristina Barreto and Martin Lancaster
Curators and Coordinators
Exhibition Layout
Cristina Barreto
Martin Lancaster
Restoration and Conservation
R.T. Restauro Tessile
Exhibition Installation
Sergio Salerni
Coordination Assistant
Natalie Garbett
Production Manager
Consuelo Nocita
Exhibition Catalogue
SKIRA
Editorial Project Manager: Stefano Piantini