FASHION
Sleeping On History: The Met's Take On Sustainability
By: Madison Antino
Everybody wake up! The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the 2024 Costume Institute exhibition, better known as the theme for the Met Gala. Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion is the theme chosen for the exhibit, but don’t expect any costumes from the Disney movie. The exhibit will explore rebirth and renewal with around 250 pieces selected from over four centuries of fashion.
The exhibit will revolve around ‘reawakening’ the preserved garments of the costume collection that can no longer be worn again, instead reimagining the pieces with technology and multi-sensory elements. “When an item of clothing enters our collection, its status is changed irrevocably,” said Andrew Bolton, head curator of The Costume Institute. “What was once a vital part of a person’s lived experience is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled.”
Courtesy of Harper's Bazaar
Elements of nature will string together each garment on display. Selected pieces used as a sneak peek into the exhibit included the Alexander McQueen gown made from over 1,000 razor clam shells from the spring 2001 show ‘Voss’. WWD reported that the sound of razor clam shells was recorded and will be played to accompany the piece, referencing model Erin O’Connor cracking the shells on the runway.
Courtesy of Vogue
Another highlighted piece is a Charles Frederick Worth ball gown from 1877, embroidered with clouds and sun rays. Andrew Bolton noted the gown was what had inspired next year’s theme; the gown has become too fragile to display on a mannequin and will be shown flat, accompanied by a CGI holographic version that will float over it in the exhibit.
Other notable garments were a 2011 mini dress designed by Sarah Burton for her first collection as creative director of Alexander McQueen. The dress was most notably worn by Elizabeth Banks’ character Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and is embellished with thousands of faux butterflies made from feathers. Floral dresses from Loewe’s fall 2023 collection will accompany a Nini Ricci frock from 1958. The iconic Junon and Venus gowns from Christian Dior fall of 1949 will also be a highlight.
Courtesy of Vogue
What else could we see when the exhibit opens up its curtains next May? The Met’s costume collection has over 33,000 garments kept in preservation, but from what has been released so far we can expect many pieces from Alexander McQueen, like the 2003 Oyster dress or the belted spray-painted dress worn by Shalom Harlow. Since a Charles Worth gown inspired the exhibit as a whole, a plethora of his silk evening gowns should be on display. Other possibilities could be designs from John Galliano’s tenures at Dior and now Maison Margiela, the surrealist pieces of Elsa Schiaparelli, or maybe couture from Guo Pei, whose pieces have been a constant through past exhibits.
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The nature element of the exhibition will tie in with sustainability, which was rumored to have been an upcoming theme for the Met Gala. With the rise of archival pulls dominating the carpet in recent years, it won’t be surprising for that trend to continue on the first Monday in May, or even be the official dress code of the evening.
Everyone remembers where they were when Kim Kardashian stepped out in Marilyn Monroe’s infamous “Happy Birthday Mr. President” sheer rhinestone-encrusted gown for the 2021 Met Gala. The dress was worth about $10 million and was out on loan for Kim by Ripley’s. She had also shared numerous times throughout the event the amount of effort she had to put in to even fit into Marilyn’s dress and the fact that she could only wear it for a few minutes, raising many questions as to why she was allowed to wear it at all. Major backlash then ensued once news broke that Kim had damaged the dress, with images released showcasing holes and rips through the back.
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
As soon as the Met released the 2024 exhibition would revolve around fragile garments that cannot be worn anymore, the internet theorized that the theme may or may not be a slight at Kim, who was also rumored to have been uninvited last year (which was debunked when she showed up). While the Met Gala’s dress code has yet to be released, the months leading up to Monday, May 6th will be spent aptly theorizing what will be worn and who will be there. Expect to see a theme involving nature and sustainability, with hopefully no archival pieces wrecked in the process - sorry Kim!
