Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion at The Costume Institute

The Costume Institute’s Fall 2016 exhibition, Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion, will be open at the Anna Wintour Costume Center from 18 November, 2016 to 5 February, 2017, and will feature major couture acquisitions of the past ten years.

The show, put together by Assistant Curator Jessica Regan with the assistance of Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, will explore how the department has shaped its collecting strategy to amass masterworks of only 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 said,

‘Our mission is to present fashion as a living art that interprets history, becomes part of the historical process, and inspires subsequent art.’

The exhibition will highlight around sixty masterworks primarily in womenswear, and some menswear from the early 18th century to the present, which The Costume Institute has acquired since its last acquisitions show in 2007 called blog.mode: addressing fashion.

The Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery will be organised chronologically with ensembles shown in packing crates and on palettes, as though they have just arrived at The Met. Each object, including a selection of accessories – will be accompanied by an in-depth explanation of its significance within the history of fashion. 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 a selection 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.

“While fashion is often derided for its ephemerality, its quick responsiveness to change ensures that it is an immediate expression of the spirit of its time—a vivid reflection of social, cultural, and political circumstances, and of shifting ideals of beauty,” said Ms. Regan. “The masterworks we’ve chosen to highlight are among many we have collected in the past decade that draw on forms, motifs, and themes of the past, reinterpreting fashion history in ways that resonate in the present.”