Sleeping Beauties: The Reawakening of Fashion” a multisensory experience

The first Monday of May is upon us and with it The Met Gala that supports The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum and for 2024 exhibition a wonderful exhibit will open it’doors: “Sleeping Beauties: The Reawakening of Fashion” curated by Andrew Bolton and his team.

Approximately 250 garments and accessories including magnificent hats spanning four centuries will be on view visually united by iconography related to nature which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion as a vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal.

“Sleeping Beauties: The Reawakening of Fashion” will reactivate the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s collection through first hand research conservation analysis and diverse technologies from cutting edge tools, artificial intelligence and computer generated imagery to,traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection and soundscapes.

Visitors will be invited to smell the aromatic histories of hats bearing floral motifs, to touch the walls of galleries that will be embossed with the embroidery of select garments and to experience via the illusion technique known as Pepper’s ghost how the “hobble skirt” restricted women’s stride in the early 20th century . Some of the garments can no longer be dressed on mannequins due their extreme fragility.

Max Hollein, the Museum’s Marina Kellen French director and Chief Executive Officer said: “The Met’s innovative spring 2024 Costume Institute exhibition will push the boundaries of our imagination and invite us to experience the multi sensory facets of a garment, those facets that deteriorate and become lost after entering a museum collection as an object. “

“Sleeping Beauties: The Reawakening of Fashion” will open to the public from May 10th through September 2, 2024 at The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

@titinapenzini

Among my favorite pieces are: