The Museum of Costume and Textile

A good way to pass your afternoon is going to the museum. June 29th until September 9th, 2007, the Museum of the Costume and the Textile of Quebec has the honor to have the Chinese accessories and clothing of XIXe and XXe centuries. This exposure emphasizes a selection of embroideries and clothing resulting from the extraordinary collection of Chinese textiles Mrs Zhimei Zhang, whose Museum acquired in 2006.

The varnishing of the exposure will take place Thursday June 28 at 18 h. Presenting nearly 200 objects exposed for the first time to the public, this famous exposure in a seizing way the rich person textile traditions of the end of the Qing dynasty to the beginning of the XXe century. The visitor will discover creations whose subtle refinement can only allure: silk chatoyantes dresses, delicate slippers, adorable children hats and many embroidered accessories. All these parts testify to the care meticulous person formerly brought to the decoration of the objects of the daily newspaper.

Enthusiastic collectionneure, Zhimei Zhang came to Canada in 1985 and constituted its impressive collection at the time of its various stays in China. Journalist and author, Mrs Zhang is moreover member elect of Price QSPELL 1993 for her autobiographical book Foxspirit: In Woman in Mao' S China which will be soon available in French under the title of My life in red. Thanks to the generosity of Mrs Zhang, it is more than 700 textile parts which join to the collection of the MCTQ. This donation represents a major acquisition for the MCTQ and the Québécois textile inheritance. 

HEAD IN FESTIVAL 

by Lucie Grégoire

The Museum of the costume and the textile of Quebec presents the head in festival: Lucie Gregoire, modiste or hatmaker. This retrospective exposure will emphasize the undeniable talent of a modiste from quebec, whose reputation is not any more to make! One could see the hats of Lucie Gregoire to the theatre (Cabaret of the words, Espace Go, 2002), with the opera (Carmen, Opéra of Montreal, 2005), crown the head of famous actors and decorate the ogee mouldings of various museums (Museum of the hat, Chazelles-on-Lyon, Musée of the mode of Marseilles, France). That which never draws its hats and which gives them first names of woman, takes as a starting point the the vegetable world to make them. Thus, wicker, flax and sheets of iris are with the number of materials privileged by the artist.

Throughout its career, Lucie Gregoire was interested in the development by the form. A series of hats realized in 1989 starting from rectangles, series for which the modiste had used only fabric, wire, scissors and his hands, obtained a frank success with the 6th international Festival of the flax of Assembles-Carlo and was acquired thereafter by the Museum of the hat of Chazelles-on-Lyon (France). A few years later, its improvisation on red velvet gives rise to hat-sculptures whose sumptuousness has equal only technical control. Ceaseless research leads Gregoire to be interested in leather, it then makes hats with the large petals which it drapes with elegance on wood heads.

A purse of creation of the Council of Arts of Canada makes it possible today to the modiste to present his very last felt collection to us moulded on blocks. Always of vegetable inspiration, these adorable hat-improvisations were cut out starting from the shape of a ball. Feathers, folded grogram, ribbons and buttons come to supplement their strange beauty and bitterly make us regret old times when each female head was in festival!

 The Museum of the costume and the textile of Quebec is located at Saint-Lambert, to the 349, street Riverside. Borrow exit 6 of motorway 132 or bus 6, 13 or 15 starting from the subway station Longueuil. The MCTQ is open Tuesday to Friday of 10 H with 5 p.m. and the weekends of 11 a.m. to 17 h. the entry is 4 $. This exposure profits from the support of the ministry for the Culture and the Communications from Quebec, of the Town of Saint-Lambert, the agglomeration of Longueuil, Pratt & Whitney Canada. Information: (450) 923-6601 or www.mctq.org.