MakeUp in Paris : Beauty ready-to-wear – Carrousel du Louvre 2018 : – Musée A la Carte ®

Equipages, chatelaines, necessaires or beauty cases, finger or ball purses. Minaudières^©, boudoir purses or vanity cases. Used as fashion accessories or beauty items, they have always been very popular with women, both for their aesthetic qualities and their practicality. Multifunctional and highly ingenious, they soon became indispensable accessories.

In the West, their use goes back to the Renaissance. During the 17th and 18th centuries, necessaires became all the rage and in the 19th century, chatelaines came back in fashion followed in the 20th century by finger and ball purses. Around 1905, handbags often contained a mirror and a special compartment for powder and a puff. But it was with the emancipation of women and the more widespread use of cosmetics after WWI, that multifunctional beauty objects became a must.

For this exhibition, created by le Musée à la Carte^®, the Camilli and Martin-Hattemberg collections have been enriched with new beauty objects. They will be on display here for the first time along with photographs that show the details of the level of sophistication and ingenuity of their design.

Anne Camilli, Exhibition Commissioner