Presented as a large sewing workshop, this exhibition offers an opportunity to explore jeans, to observe their inside and outside, to understand their success and to analyze what is at stake in today's world.

Where do jeans come from?

Before being a garment, jeans are a fabric. Its story is as much the story of a fabric as it is the story of the words that designate it and that have travelled from Europe to America. Besides, our jeans are not made of jeans but of denim! Entry in matter(s) where one will cross a wall of buttocks, James Dean, doll's clothes in denim and a burst of jeans.

Jeans, a universal story

Plunge into the wonderful adventure of jeans, from the Far West to the present day, with a selection of American jeans collectibles from the end of the 19th century to 1945 and a large audiovisual projection that associates jeans with the history of the 20th and 21st centuries through music, protest movements and film icons.

Jeans, a technical garment

The industrial and technical world: we enter the world of clothing. From the cotton harvest to the finished product, all the steps in the manufacture of a jean are explained in detail and the tissuthèque allows you to explore the variety of denim declinations.

Jeans and excess...

Over-consumption of water and pesticides in cotton farming, workers' working conditions, over-production and fast fashion ... in an immersive projection space, a shock film sheds a disturbing light on the production and consumption of jeans.

What alternatives can enable us to buy ‘clean jeans’?

Culture and choice of fibers, dyeing techniques, production methods, ways of consumption... Presentation of the many initiatives, research and innovations that exist to reduce the social and environmental impact of jeans.

Jeans and fashion

In this collective playground, you discover the world of fashion by choosing an outfit and by taking part in a real fashion show on the big screen. Pieces by couturiers and young designers reveal today's denim trends.