Olivier Saillard

Olivier Saillard (b. 1967, Pontarlier) 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.

He has written several books, among others “Histoire idéale de la mode contemporaine: Les plus beaux défilés de 1971 à nos jours” (Textuel, 2009), “Le Bouquin de la mode” (Robert Laffont, 2019), and has organized significant exhibitions such as “Yohji Yamamoto: Juste des vêtements,” “Christian Lacroix: Histoires de Mode” at Musée des Arts décoratifs, “Azzedine Alaïa” and “Jeanne Lanvin” at Palais Galliera, “Madame Grès, la couture à l’œuvre” and “Balenciaga, l’œuvre au noir” at Musée Bourdelle, and more recently “Le musée éphémère de la mode” in Palazzo Pitti, Florence. In 2005, Olivier Saillard was honored with the Villa Kujoyama award in Kyoto.

Other performances include “Models Never Talk,” “Sur-exposition” with Charlotte Rampling, and “Couture essentielle.” In the last twenty years, he has presented around thirty shows in total. In 2018, he founded “Moda Povera,” a clothing design business imbued with a poetic, performative, and pedagogical spirit, where common and plain garments acquire prestige through the expertise and techniques deep-seated in haute couture.

Olivier Saillard and Tilda Swinton:

“The Impossible Wardrobe” (2012)
“Eternity Dress” (2013)
“Cloakroom—Vestiaire obligatoire” (2014)
“Sur-exposition” (along with Charlotte Rampling, 2016)
“Embodying Pasolini” (2022)
"A Biographical Wardrobe" (2025)