PARIS — Palais Galliera has named Emilie Hammen, a respected academic with experience of working for leading luxury houses, its new director.
Hammen took up the post on July 10, succeeding Miren Arzalluz, who was named general director of the Guggenheim Bilbao last November following a seven-year stint at the head of the fashion museum backed by Paris City Hall.
A graduate of the Ecole Duperré and the Institut Français de la Mode, or IFM, Hammen began her career as a textile accessories designer at Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. She earned a PhD in fashion history from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2020.
“By closely articulating theory and practice, she has developed an original approach that contributes to the renewal of contemporary readings of fashion history,” the museum said in a statement.
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Hammen teaches history and theory of fashion at the Sorbonne, where she helms the first French university research chair dedicated to the history of fashion and its heritage. Since 2014 she has also taught fashion history at the IFM, where she leads the Chanel and Le19M Chair in Fashion Savoir-Faire.
A curator and a scholar, Hammen is the author of the 2023 book “L’idée de mode,” or “The Idea of Fashion” in English, which explores through the analysis of texts, history and visual studies the way that fashion evolved into a discipline in its own right.
A Franco-American national, Hammen collaborated with Dior under Maria Grazia Chiuri’s tenure on the research behind each collection, and co-curated the exhibition last fall marking the centenary of embroiderer Lesage, among others.
“As director of the Palais Galliera, Emilie Hammen will draw on her dual expertise in fashion, both scientific and creative,” the museum said.
“She will continue to develop the museum’s exceptional collection through an ambitious and balanced program of exhibitions, anchored in contemporary issues and attractive to visitors from Paris, France and abroad,” it added.
During her tenure, Arzalluz oversaw a major expansion funded by Chanel that doubled the museum’s exhibition area and introduced a permanent collection alongside rotating exhibits.
