For the first time since its establishment, the Provençal Museum of Costume and Jewelry presents an exhibition dedicated to a hot topic: sport ! For two centuries now, on the French Riviera, quality of life and climate have generated a new vision of vacationing. Quickly, sports and leisure became inseparable, creating a lifestyle still sought nowadays.
Here will be traced the incredible spread of certain sport practices, from the earliest ancient testimony to the development of physical activity in the 19th century, followed by its democratization in the following century. Crossing the history of sport since antiquity, with the famous Olympic Games or the first marathon, allows to appreciate its spectacular evolutions. Shall we recall that, for many centuries, it was almost entirely forgotten in Europe? Jeu de paume, fencing and dance, established as an academy by Louis XIV, were the most common sport activities until the French Revolution.
During this exhibition, several dozen female and male silhouettes will be presented through rotations, to ensure the best preservation conditions for these rare and sought-after collections of sportswear, which adapt both to seasonality and vacation styles. Cyclists, ice skaters, boxers, riders, golfers, swimwear, beachwear, and many others await you in the halls of the Provençal Museum of Costume and Jewelry, starting this spring season. An exhibition to discover and rediscover for all those sensitive to fashion and the gaze that has been cast on bodies over the past two centuries!
