Arles Welcomes Couture Shows, Museum Openings & Exhibitions For A New Kind Of Fashion Summer
July 9, 2025- Arles Fashion Summer: Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025
Arles once moved at the rhythm of stonecutters and shepherds. The city stood quietly between the Rhône River and the salt plains of the Camargue. It carried the weight of its Roman amphitheater, its churches, and its carved doorways faded by mistral winds. Time moved slowly. Then photography arrived.
In 1970, a group of visionaries launched Les Rencontres d’Arles. They opened up cloisters, train depots, and abandoned houses. They filled the city with images. Photographers came from across the world. They brought stories, arguments, and questions. The city listened. Each year, Arles shifted. The festival grew. It shaped a new identity.
Over fifty years later, Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 continues to transform the city. What began as a photography event now moves across fashion, archive, and visual storytelling. Institutions launch new spaces. Luxury groups support emerging voices. Designers find inspiration in old stone and open light.
This summer, Arles becomes a destination for those who read images as culture. Fashion exhibitions, museum openings, and printed matter. Photography speaks through clothing, costume, and memory. What you wear becomes what you carry.
Below, we detail why the city deserves a place on every style-savvy itinerary.
Photographers Turn Fashion Into Language
Across Arles, garments become language. This year’s Les Rencontres d’Arles explores the body as witness.
🖼️ Futurs Ancestraux (Église des Trinitaires)
Traditional Brazilian bridalwear is reimagined through a contemporary lens. Fabric becomes a form of cultural continuity.
🖼️ Du magma dans l’océan (Maison des Peintres)
Costumes in Brandon Gercara’s work explore identity beyond binaries, with theatrical pieces and defiant gestures.
🖼️ Échos d’un futur proche by Caroline Monnet
Presented at Salle Henri Comte, this series shows First Nations women from Canada in a traditional and futuristic dress. A vision of resistance through aesthetic legacy.
🖼️ Alma / Les vêtements de maman by Keisha Scarville
Clothing as memory. Scarville photographs her late mother’s wardrobe, elevating textiles into a ritual.
🖼️ Elles obliquent, elles obstinent, elles tempêtent (Commanderie Sainte-Lucie)
Historic portraits of women labeled “deviant.” The wardrobe serves as both a tool of discipline and a mode of rebellion.
🗓️ Exhibitions run through October 5
🎟️ Pass Festival: 42€
🌐 rencontres-arles.com
Yves Saint Laurent and the Camera
Located in the industrial space of La Mécanique Générale, this co-production between Les Rencontres and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris explores the couturier’s lifelong dialogue with photography.
🧵 Section One: Iconic portraits by Irving Penn, Avedon, and William Klein.
🧾 Section Two: Over 200 archival objects—contact sheets, press clippings, campaign material, personal photos.
The exhibition maps how the image shaped the house of Saint Laurent, not just visually but structurally. It’s a rare, deeply curated show worth the trip alone.
📍 La Mécanique Générale, Parc des Ateliers
🗓️ Until October 5
🎟️ Included in Festival Pass
Fragonard Opens a Fashion Museum in a Private Hôtel Particulier
Maison Fragonard just opened its Musée de la Mode et du Costume inside the historic Hôtel Bouchaud de Bussy, after five years of renovation.
👗 Collections–collection: A first show blending two historic costume collections from the Pascal and Costa families. Curated with a scenographic twist that invites pieces to “speak” to one another.
The space was restored by the same architects behind the YSL Museum in Marrakech. It feels intimate, local, and surprisingly contemporary.
📍 16 rue de la Calade, Arles
🗓️ Opened July 6
Kering, Women In Motion, and the Power of Photography
For the sixth year, Kering deepens its support of women photographers through its Women In Motion prize. This year’s award goes to Nan Goldin—honored for her raw, unfiltered portraits and her impact on feminist and queer visual culture.
Her featured series, Stendhal Syndrome, is on view at Église Saint-Blaise.
📍 Église Saint-Blaise, Arles
🗓️ Opening July 8
Kering also continues its support of the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro Arles, spotlighting new talent and keeping the focus on emerging female voices in image-making.
Style Details That Count
👜 Louis Vuitton launches an Arles City Guide for this season
📘 Blue pocket edition available for 25€ in select LV stores and concept shops around the city.
💡 Practical Tip: Plan your visit early morning or late afternoon. Arles’ heat is dry but sharp, and lines for key exhibitions stretch quickly.
📍 Base yourself near Place Voltaire for walking access to most venues and the best local cafés.
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