Fashion, as a concept, is an ephemeral expression. He died almost at birth. What shines today is obsolete tomorrow.
Sometimes, however, fairy tales come true and what was considered lost comes to life. There is the sleeping beauty, inert for centuries waiting, without knowing it, for a prince who will take her from oblivion with a kiss.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York has taken on the role of “awakening” sleeping beauties, rescued from those morgues destined for the hidden rest of works of art.
In this case, at the Costume Institute exhibition – which serves as an excuse for the famous vanity gala held last Monday, while pro-Palestine protesters were arrested around it – the popular story alludes to the recovery of a total of 16 old men. dresses, some with five centuries of history, that are presented like the beauty of the story placed in glass chests. They are pieces so fragile that not even mannequins can be dressed with them.
Sleeping beauties: the awakening of fashion is the title of this exhibition that represents the awakening of disappeared garments, not even remembered on the shelves of memory.
During the tour, a total of 250 dresses and accessories that died in their original work, taken from the Met’s own collection, largely made up of donations, are exhibited as a metaphor for the transience of fashion.
“It is a relationship in terms of nature, of ideas about life and death, because the exhibition tries to awaken garments from our collection through the senses,” explains David Bolton, curator and right-hand man of Ana Wintour, the great boss of all this. mounting.
“This is about rebirth, renewal, this is about simplicity and fleeting transience, like nature,” says Bolton during the presentation to the press, where he highlights the capacity of museums to preserve what in any other situation no longer exists. would exist.
“A dress can be preserved forever, which is something extraordinary,” he adds.
This is a walk for survival. It is a narrow route, with corridors and clearings, walls with fabric pieces and ceilings where butterflies, insects or birds fly over – a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock’s film is created – where you can hear the rustling of those dresses like if they were still at a social gathering (created in echo-free chambers) or you smell the perfume of roses that one day permeated the ladies who wore those designs.
In all this, something more than eyesight plays a relevant role, which is what is usually exercised in this type of venue.
As soon as you enter there is one of those sleeping beauties, many flowers and crinolines.
“Touch, touch,” says one of the guards, shortly after entering that territory. Dior was greatly influenced by Impressionism and this is evident in his delicate floral embroidery on the famous “Mrs. Dior” dress. Well, in case anyone feels the need to feel, there is a small white replica in 3D printed plaster. “Touch, touch…” insists the woman, surprised that she dares to do something always forbidden.
So this is a multi-sensory experience in which touch, hearing and smell play, in an attempt to revive those garments, as if they were still in their original world. “We wanted to do something intimate and participatory,” says Bolton.
Using the “Pepper ghost” (illusion technique in magic tricks or in theater) you can experience the same thing as those women of the early 20th century when wearing a tied skirt. There’s even a fancy mannequin that you can send a text message to and it gives a response using ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool.
“The exhibition uses a wide range of technologies, some very new and experimental, in a way that has never been seen before,” says Max Hollein, director of the Met.
AI or digital imaging allows objects to be shown in an original way. “Aspects that are not usually experienced are highlighted,” adds Hollein. A red rose bleeds.
