![]() And while we’ll all have to wait to see how that plays out, we can satisfy our craving for elaborate dressing by looking at past Met Gala events. The red carpet theme is Gilded Glamour, so you can expect celebrities to bring their most fabulous, ornate designs to the step and repeat. It will be co-hosted by Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. This year’s Met Gala will serve as a celebration of American fashion, highlighting the museum’s new exhibition, In America: An Anthology of Fashion. If you compare the 2010 Met Gala to 2019’s camp theme, for instance, the difference is drastic: What was once a sea of beautiful evening gowns has transformed into a showmanship of pure extravagance and risk-taking. The star-studded event-and its various themes-have encouraged attendees to have unabashed fun on the red carpet, and it’s a spirit that has only been amplified as the gala has grown. The Catholic imagination also operates on an experiential level, and, accordingly, the show’s configuration evokes the concept and practice of a pilgrimage.Over the past decade, the Met Gala red carpet has only gotten bigger and better. These impulses are reflected in the organization of the exhibition, which unfolds as a series of short stories told through conversations between religious artworks in The Met collection and fashions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. ![]() This exhibition explores how the Catholic imagination has shaped the creativity of designers and how it is conveyed through their narrative impulses. On a deeper level, it manifests as a reliance on storytelling, and specifically on metaphor-which the sociologist Andrew Greeley describes as the essential characteristic of a particular sensibility he defines as “the Catholic imagination.” On the surface, this influence is expressed through explicit Catholic imagery and symbolism as well as references to specific garments worn by the clergy and religious orders. While their current relationships to Catholicism vary, most acknowledge its enduring influence on their imaginations. ©Kristina Nazarevskaia for galleryIntellįrom the Met: “ Heavenly Bodies features the work of designers who for the most part were raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”. Ivory silk taffeta and gold-painted feathers. You’re better off skipping the book and spending more time at the show. Unfortunately, by choosing to replace hi-resolution photographs of these gowns with scanned composites, the exhibition catalogue fails to capture the true beauty and dimension of each piece. ![]() You can’t help but think, how is it possible to create something so beautiful with something so simple as a silk thread and a needle? Of course, we’ve all seen exquisite embroidery but trust me when I tell you that this is on a …. In the hands of the craftsmen each thread comes to life, each object gains dimension.Įmbroidered Papal dresses and coats shimmer and glow with unparalleled beauty. The workmanship on these pieces is breathtaking. While you’re in the main building make sure to visit the Costume Institute’s lower level galleries where the “real jewels” are. Bolton and his team not only saved us a trip to The Vatican, but managed to bring to New York several exquisite Papal vestments (robes and accessories) that have never before left The Vatican. Black silk jersey, white cotton poplin, embroidered glass stones. Signs around the gowns will point you to the relevant work of art. So as you meander from gown to gown, pay close attention to the statues, altars, draperies, and paintings near the mannequins. What makes this exhibition worth seeing several times is that Andrew Bolton and his curatorial staff installed each dress (or a grouping) in a dialogue with the religious work that inspired its creation. What makes this a worthwhile exploration is not just the colorful visual journey (think of the surreal Comme des Garçons or the lusciously seductive Alexander McQueen shows). It starts at the main building on 5 th Avenue and continues in The Cloisters, the tucked away medieval structure in Fort Tryon Park in Uptown Manhattan. The exhibition extends across two of the Metropolitan Museum’s three buildings. Black wool, black silk velvet and satin, nylon tulle, and appliquéd wool gabardine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |