The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has unveiled its new home: a 12,000 square foot gallery space off the museum's Great Hall, named the Condé Nast Galleries. This expansion triples the size of the institute's previous basement location, acknowledging the immense popularity of fashion exhibitions, which are often among the Met's most visited shows. The new space places fashion alongside ancient Egyptian artefacts in the same crowd-pleasing category.
Costume Art Exhibition
Titled Costume Art, the spring exhibition pairs 200 garments and accessories with 200 artworks from the Met's collection. Lead curator Andrew Bolton explained that the goal is to invite visitors to reconsider longstanding hierarchies and view art through the lens of fashion. The exhibition explores the concept of the dressed body, a theme present throughout the Met's vast collection.
Thematic Body Types
The show is organized into 13 thematic body types, starting with the undressed human body. The Naked and Nude section features a Walter van Beirendonck spandex top and leggings with trompe l'oeil male musculature, paired with a Marcantonio Raimondi engraving of Adam and Eve. Next, the Abstracted Body section showcases three Comme des Garçons dresses that distort the body into unexpected silhouettes, displayed alongside curvaceous sculptures by Max Weber, Jean Arp, and Henry Moore.
The Corpulent Body section includes ensembles by Australian designer Michaela Stark, whose corsets and bound garments accentuate bulges of fat and flesh, paired with a Cycladic marble female figure from 4500-4000 BCE. Another of Stark's works is juxtaposed with Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana and Serpent sculpture.
Representations of the Disabled Body feature a mannequin styled after campaigner Sinéad Burke, wearing a Burberry trenchcoat modified to fit her small stature by photographer Tim Walker. All mannequins in this section are placed on high podiums, deliberately pedestalised to foreground diversity.
Other sections include the Mortal Body, with dresses embroidered with anatomical parts and skeleton-like garments; the Aging Body, featuring a Batsheva jumper with the word "Hag" next to George Luks's painting The Old Duchess; and a Vetements hoodie declaring "I'm retired" beside a Diane Arbus photograph of retirees.
Met Gala Controversy
The press preview precedes Monday's Met Gala, which this year is mired in controversy due to sponsorship by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Anna Wintour, speaking at the preview, described the first Monday in May as her favourite and most terrifying day. She underlined the necessity of funding for art and described Sánchez Bezos as a force for joy and generosity. The Met Gala, she said, has a ripple effect across New York, driving trade to local businesses.
Despite the controversy, the exhibition itself offers a refreshing and thought-provoking exploration of body diversity, pairing fashion with art in unexpected ways.
