“Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion”
The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met Fifth Avenue, Anna Wintour Costume Center, NYC
November 18, 2016 – February 5, 2017
The Costume Institute’s Fall 2016 exhibition, “Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion,” on view in the Anna Wintour Costume Center from November 18, 2016, through February 5, 2017, will feature significant acquisitions of the past 10 years. The show, curated by Assistant Curator Jessica Regan with support from Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, will explore how the department has honed its collecting strategy to amass masterworks of the highest aesthetic and technical quality, including iconic works by designers who have changed the course of fashion history and advanced fashion as an art form. Bolton stated:
“Our mission is to present fashion as a living art that interprets history, becomes part of the historical process, and inspires subsequent art.” -Andrew Bolton
The exhibition will highlight approximately 60 of these masterworks from the early 18th century to the present, which The Costume Institute has acquired since its last acquisitions show, “blog.mode: addressing fashion,” in 2007.
The main Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery will be organized chronologically with ensembles shown in packing crates and on palettes, as though they have just arrived at The Met. Each object—primarily women’s wear, as well as some men’s wear ensembles and a selection of accessories—will be accompanied by an in-depth explanation of its significance within the canon of fashion history. Some newly acquired objects will be paired with pieces already in the collection to illustrate the enduring influence of certain master couturiers and iconic historical silhouettes. A recently acquired John Galliano for Maison Margiela dress from 2015 will be paired with a Cristobal Balenciaga gown from 1964. A Halston evening gown from the 1980s, new to the collection, will be juxtaposed with a Vionnet gown from the 1930s.
The Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery will feature some of the ensembles donated by designers in honor of Harold Koda upon his retirement as Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute in January 2016.
For more information about the exhibition head over to The Met’s site.
