The Galerie du 19M presents Metamorphoses, the Hats of Maison Michel, an exhibition dedicated to Maison Michel, an essential reference in millinery and head accessories and resident of 19M since 2021.

Founded in 1936 on rue Sainte-Anne in Paris by Auguste Michel, the Maison d’art celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. Initially part of an era when the hat was an essential part of both men’s and women’s wardrobes, Maison Michel has reinvented itself over the decades, reaffirming the place of this accessory in contemporary uses.

Under the artistic direction of Priscilla Royer since 2015, the House preserves a heritage of nearly 4,000 wooden forms and brings together rare crafts mastering the entire creative chain: from sketch to choice of materials, from carved wood to finished headwear. Serving the greatest couture Houses and its own collections, this singular expertise shapes Maison Michel’s identity between tradition and innovation, elegance and functionality.

The exhibition was conceived by Priscilla Royer and Émilie Hammen alongside the Galerie du 19M. Émilie Hammen, a graduate of École Duperré and the Institut Français de la Mode, is a fashion historian, author of L’idée de mode (2023), and since July 2025 director of the Palais Galliera, the Museum of Fashion of the City of Paris. She also teaches at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and IFM.

The exhibition route unfolds in 4 stages:
Origins, Transformation, Metamorphoses and Accomplishment.

It traces the transformation of raw material, from lime wood to felt, from ribbon to veil, and introduces visitors to formiers, hatmakers, straw cutters and milliners who shape headwear as a symbol of identity and personal expression. Berets, bibis, caps, boaters, capelines and fedoras are displayed alongside exceptional pieces unveiled during shows for major fashion Houses, as well as new creations from collaborations with young designers.

The hat’s evocative force also permeates cinema, where it becomes a powerful visual clue. In partnership with mk2, the exhibition offers a journey through great eras of cinema, with extracts in which hats, headwear, bonnets or caps play an essential role in character construction.

The Galerie du 19M also invites L’Usine de Films Amateurs by Michel Gondry to imagine a participatory cinema experience: in a Maison Michel hat boutique-workshop inspired by the early 20th century, visitors can invent stories around transmission, transformation and the Métiers d’art. Every Saturday from 2 pm to 5 pm, free upon registration.

The exhibition also features works and new collaborations by creators Erica Baum, Amaury Darras, Diane Gaignoux, Emily Hurst and Bastiaan Woudt. Erica Baum, born in 1961 in New York, cuts, assembles and photographs fragments of images and texts from newspapers and books to create “visual poetries”; her presented photographs come from a series on sewing patterns recovered from 1970s fashion magazines, similar to those in the Maison Michel archives. Amaury Darras, born in 1997 in Marseille, trained at École Boulle and won the Grand Prix du jury Accessoires at the 40th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in Hyères in 2025; he presents a new work made with the support of 19M.

Associated cultural programming includes workshops:

• Introduction to straw and raffia weaving with Margot Graziani;
• Creation in grosgrain ribbon with Sofia Bonilla;
• Introduction to felt work with Théophile Peris.

A collaborative workshop, Straw braiding, is imagined by Emma Bruschi.

The Nocturnes include “The hat, being and appearing” with L’Étiquette magazine, a performance with Souffle Collectif, and a “Metamorphoses, the cabaret” evening.

Faithful to 19M’s vocation of making the Métiers d’art accessible to as many people as possible, this exhibition open to all invites the public to discover the hat inside and out and to explore its resonances in fashion, contemporary creation and cinema.

Far from a linear route, Metamorphoses, the Hats of Maison Michel retraces successive passages, gestures and encounters: between plant, wood, textile, imagination and body.

Galerie du 19M, Paris
23 September to 13 December 2026
Free admission
2 Pl. Skanderbeg, 75019 Paris

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