Peanuts and high fashion collide in new Snoopy exhibition in Paris

A new exhibition opened on Saturday in Paris charting the emergence of Snoopy as a fashion icon, with the famed black-and-white beagle embraced by designers from streetwear brands to couture houses.

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The show at the Hotel du Grand Veneur in the Marais neighbourhood is part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts comic strip crew which were created by late American illustrator Charles Schulz.

It is the latest entry in a competitive but extremely well-attended field of fashion show-cases in the French capital, with the Louvre (‘Louvre Couture”) and the Grand Palais (‘Dolce & Gabbana”) currently hosting packed-out exhibitions. “Since we're celebrating our 75th anniversary this year, we thought it would be fun to celebrate the history that the brand has with fashion. And where else would you do that but in Paris?” said Melissa Menta from the Peanuts Worldwide company.

Entitled “Snoopy in Style” and running from March 29-April 5, the free show explains the intense care taken by Schulz to create simple, visually recognisable characters that would “bounce off the page”.

Charlie Brown was initially drawn with just a plain white t-shirt before Schulz — whose snappy dress sense is also celebrated in the show — gave him his trademark sweater with a jagged stripe. But the exhibition is at its most interesting in explaining how designer collaborations and merchandising — long before they were fashionable — helped turn a 1950s comic strip scribble into a global cultural phenomenon.

Nowadays, Snoopy is recognised by between 80-90 per cent of people in the United States, Europe, Japan and even China, according to research by the Deloitte consultancy for the Peanuts company.