The Musée Provençal du Costume et du Bijou in Grasse is switching to winter mode. Some of the display cases are being transformed, leaving behind their summer and maritime character in favor of snow-covered mountains. A skater from the early 20th century, an elegant bourgeois woman, and her sleigh now take their place in the salons of the Hôtel de Clapiers-Cabris...
Renowned for its pure air with therapeutic benefits, the mountains offer the opportunity to engage in a wide range of physical activities. Formerly simple means of transportation, skiing, sledding, sleighs, and ice skating made their way into the leisure industry and experienced their moment of glory.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the sleigh became a symbol of winter leisure for the wealthy. British tourists vacationing in Saint-Moritz, Switzerland, particularly indulged in this activity. These "vehicles" of the cold season were richly decorated, painted, and sometimes sculpted and gilded, much like carriages and sedan chairs of the past. This enthusiasm spurred the creation of tailored outfits, each more elegant than the next. These warm, durable garments were often trimmed with fur and accompanied by matching toques and muffs.
While alpine skiing is now the most popular winter sport, cross-country skiing was a favorite for many years. Introduced to France by Norwegians in 1899 in the Jura resort of Les Rousses, the latter paved the way for the former, as evidenced by the opening of the first downhill skiing school in Briançon in 1903.
A few years later, the town of Montgenèvre organized a ski competition that attracted nearly 3,000 spectators. Women quickly made their mark in the sport, as they participated in the cross-country skiing events at the 1908 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, competing in the three-kilometer race. Dressed in wide, short skirts, bodices, corsets, and hats, they glided stylishly over the snow. But they didn’t stop there; soon they were also taking up mountaineering, dressed in an outfit consisting of trousers covered by a buttoned skirt, a corset, a coat, and a hat. Pants, which had long been prohibited but were better suited to the cold conditions, eventually gained acceptance.
