The Frank Lloyd Wright Room, created to look like films by director Martin Scorsese, is seen during the press launch for the Spring Costume Institute exhibition In America: An Anthology of Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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The Met Gala, a star-studded annual event to raise money for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is back Monday night. And this year’s theme will be celebrating fashion design and dressmaking in the Gilded Age, the museum unveiled earlier in the day.
Officially known as Costume Institute Benefit, the gala was canceled in 2020 amid the height of the pandemic and was moved to September last year from its usual date, the first Monday in May.
With the return of the gala to its established time of year, the Met is launching a special fashion exhibition, titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Opening to the public from May 7, the exhibition will feature approximately 100 examples of dress from the 19th to mid-late 20th centuries staged in the American Wing’s period rooms.
The exhibition rooms were created as “freeze frames” by eight film directors in collaboration with the curatorial team of the Met’s Costume Institute. The contributing film directors include
Martin Scorsese,
Tom Ford,
Janicza Bravo,
Sofia Coppola,
Julie Dash,
Regina King,
Autumn de Wilde, and
Chloé Zhao.
U.S. First Lady Jill Biden speaks during the press launch for the Spring Costume Institute exhibition In America: An Anthology of Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 2, 2022.
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Many of the fashion designers whose work will be on display are female or designers of color, including
Marguery Bolhagen,
Fannie Criss Payne,
Elizabeth Hawes,
Anne Klein,
and
Oscar de la Renta.
“The history of American design is rich and deep. It is a story of innovation and ingenuity, of rebellion and renewal. It has often been written by those in the shadows, not recognized for their influence and art,” First Lady
Jill Biden
said at the preview Monday morning. “But here at the Met, their stories are told, their voices are raised and their work can shine.”
The exhibition serves as a sequel to last fall’s exhibition “Lexicon of Fashion,” which was unveiled prior to the September gala and is still on display at the museum’s
Anna Wintour
Costume Center.
“As a whole, this ambitious two-part exhibition ignites timely conversations about the tremendous cultural contributions of designers working in the U.S. and the very definition of an American aesthetic,”
Max Hollein,
director of The Met, said at the press preview event Monday morning.
Both exhibitions will close on Sept. 5.
