Couture Essentielle by Olivier Saillard debuts in Porto, at Palácio da Bolsa, March 17th at 9 pm

The world premiere of "Couture Essentielle" takes place today at the Salão Árabe of the Palácio da Bolsa, at 9 pm, and Porto. Invited Olivier Saillard, the author of this performance to describe the creative endeavour that will happen tonight. 

For Saillard, this is a performance that feeds on the memories of fashion, targeting all types of people who identify with fashion and clothing. Every piece of clothing provoques a relationship, an energy that strikes up with the clothes and with the intimate feeling that comes from wearing a particular piece of clothing.

Besides being the director of the Palais Galliera, Saillard is also a fashion historian, known to the press as a "performeur", a scholar and an iconoclast. As many put it, "a living encyclopaedia of the history of fashion".

The historian and fashion curator began to dare create when writing his "shopping poems", which he produced in a less happy moment of his life, when living in Marseilles and was a curator of the fashion museum in that city.

The performance that Olivier Saillard debuts at Palácio da Bolsa this evening is neither a dance performance nor a theatrical production. Or, rather, it could be both. The description of this kind of collaborative spectacle balances in a thin red line when one attempts to describe it.

It is something ephemeral, performed by mannequins who were, essentially, very close to the great couturiers and to the behind the scenes process of making garments.

It is the memory of those times that Olivier Saillard wants to preserve. The director of the Palais Galliera, as museum curator, is interested in revealing the gestures of the "handmade work" of all who contribute to the act of creating fashion.

The closest definition, for Saillard, is "a fashion territory described through gestures". It is a savoir faire that presides over fashion.

Olivier Saillard draws a parallel between the body and the clothing. For this performeur, the important thing is to show the process of making fashion and how it can be encompassed in our day to day lives.

This is the first visit of the director of the Palais Galliera to Portugal. The historian told Porto. he is much pleased with the city, with the fact that Porto is a city "with water", saying that "you breathe very well here, you can tell that there is a river and the sea nearby". He also noted that Porto is a very eclectic and authentic city, which still retains its more traditional shops alongside renovated buildings.

The performative parade "Couture Essentielle" repeats at 7 pm on Saturday, at Palácio da Bolsa.