Behind the seams

PARIS -- The morning's first appointment is resembling a gauzy dream sequence from a William Klein film rather than a proper business meeting. In the private haute couture salon of Christian Dior's rue Francois boutique, Museum of Fine Arts textile and fashion arts curator Pam Parmal shores up details of the MFA exhibition ``Fashion Show: Paris Collections 2006," while Catherine Riviere, Dior's directeur du Departement Prestige (it's far too elegant a title to translate into banal English) shows Parmal a rack of opulent gowns that graced Paris runways the previous week.

``This is just incredible," says Parmal, her fingers brushing along fabric tinted the color of pale pistachios. She stops, and then moves in for the polite kill. ``We have a group of ladies at the museum who are very interested in fashion, and we're going to be traveling to Paris in the spring. I'd love to take them here."

``Of course," says Riviere without blinking. ``We would be happy to receive them."

This is how it went last week in some of the biggest fashion houses in Paris. Parmal, a woman who is so quiet and reserved that she eschewed going into academia because it requires speaking in front of groups of people, was wooing representatives at Chanel and Christian Lacroix and French journalists.

But instead of hiding in the MFA's cloisters with her textiles, Parmal has decided to make a brave push to bring herself out of her shell, and in the process bring a new, more fashion-forward audience into the Museum of Fine Arts. It begins next month when the museum opens the high-profile ``Fashion Show" on Nov. 12. The exhibition features dresses from the 2006 collections of 10 designers whose operations are based in Paris -- both ready-to-wear and couture pieces from Christian Dior, Chanel, Vi ktor & Rolf, Christian Lacroix, Azzedine Alaï a , Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan, Valentino, Rochas, and Maison Martin Margiela -- exhibited in re-creations of the designers ' Paris runway shows. It offers the public unprecedented access to view 100 pieces of couture and ready-to-wear dresses in a manner usually reserved for moneyed customers of these designers.

The show is a first for a fine art museum in the United States. Fashion houses are regularly the focus of retrospectives, particularly in Europe, but they rarely allow their collections to be exhibited alongside each other. Likewise, couturiers are not eager to show their clothes near ready-to-wear lines. But two years ago, Parmal conceived the show that crossed all those boundaries.

``Nobody has ever attempted it," says Didier Grumbach, president of the French Fashion Federation. ``This is very interesting to have these extraordinary designers showing together. This would have been very difficult to do in Paris. In Boston it is easier. I think they were worried that they would have looked badly if they said no. There is tremendous respect for the museum here."

The idea of a glamo rous, unconventional -- and potentially controversial -- show moving into the Gund Gallery has MFA director Malcolm Rogers in a genial mood. Sipping kir (no royale, s'il vous plait) in the vegetation-filled Pershing Hall, Rogers, who is also in Paris to talk to the French press, is thrilled with his textile and fashion curator's new public role. Parmal will also head a museum Fashion Council. For a $1,000 annual membership, the organization will give Bostonians access to talks from experts such as Vogue's European editor-at-large , Hamish Bowles, stage fashion shows with local retailers, and organize trips that will give behind-the-scenes peeks into the business of fashion.

``I've always wanted to do a show relating to a contemporary fashion house," says Rogers. ``I wanted to send out the message that the museum is capable of change and embracing new things. There's a kind of New England prejudice against the commercial and the successful, and to be quite honest, it shocks me. I get impatient with people who think that only certain things should be in museums. If you can have a collection of 18th-century high fashion or 19th-century high fashion, why not 21st-century high fashion?"

The museum hopes that in addition to building a new audience -- so far nearly 70 people have joined the MFA Fashion Council -- the new push will increase the department's budget and couture donations. In a meeting at the Christian Lacroix fashion house, Lacroix spokeswoman Elisabeth Bonnel told Rogers and Parmal that Lacroix will donate a piece from its collection to the museum. Bonnel said she `` never talks about prices, particularly with journalists," but haute couture can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Rogers has also said he would not be averse to Fashion Council members donating couture to the MFA.

GO BEHIND THE SCENES To watch videos shot at exclusive Parisian fashion houses, visit boston.com/living.

``I want to give Pam the time of her life on this," Rogers says. ``It's her passion that I want to unlock."

There is no doubt following Parmal through Paris that she is having the time of her life. Born in Milwaukee, she was turned on to fashion by her seamstress mother. What excites her is the craft of fashion, not the cache. Her expression turns to awe as she strolls through Chanel's atelier, talking to the expert seamstresses about their creations. As she takes a reporter on a tour of the Cristobal Balenciaga retrospective at the Musee des Arts de la Mode, she points out draping techniques with the excitement that most reserve for family weddings. At Maison Azzedine Ala ïa , Parmal is beaming as she assumes the guest of honor's seat at lunch, next to master designer Alaï a .

``I'm very much pushing myself into this role," she says . ``I'm a quiet person, and I'm a very modest person. That's why I'm a museum curator. I never pictured myself doing this . . . traveling to Paris, visiting the most powerful fashion houses, speaking to a room of French journalists. It never even entered my head. But sometimes I think people are disappointed when they meet me. They're hoping for a diva. What they get is a polite, laid-back Midwesterner."

Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.