by There was a strong showing of designers at Monday morning’s media preview of the Costume Institute’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The crowd of 400 people included Joseph Altuzarra, Thom Browne, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Phillip Lim, Stephen Jones, Felix Chabluk Smith, Olivia Cheng, and Richard Malone, among others. All of the above have pieces in the 220-piece show, which spans from 17th century to 2024. Before attendees walked through the multi-sensory exhibit, they heard from The Met’s director and chief executive officer Max Hollein and OpenAI’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati.
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Chief curator in charge of the Cultural Institute, Andrew Bolton, emphasized that “fashion is a living art form that requires most of our senses to be appreciated and understood the most. Unlike painting, which requires only the sight of the eye to be enjoyed, fashion appeals to the senses of touch, smell, hearing and sometimes even taste.”
Another attendee was Showstudio’s Nick Knight, who acted as creative consultant for the exhibition and directed the most striking digital images such as the AI-enhanced “Pepper Ghost” of the forgotten 1920s hobble skirt done on her for a long time. As the name suggests, the garment’s narrow hemline hindered the wearer’s progress.
While several guests were staying at the Charles Engelhard Court, Smith took a photo of his stylish mother Jean, who cheerfully offered, “I’m his plus one.”
His contribution to the exhibition is a deconstructive jacket inspired by Anna Maria Garthwaite which he designed for his final collection in 2013 while completing his master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London. Despite not winning any prizes at a graduate fashion competition in Trieste, Italy, Smith’s work was admired by Bolton’s predecessor, Harold Koda, who congratulated him on his collection and said The Met would contact him. Representatives from his acquisitions team did just that and bought a few pieces since Smith is inspired by many of the works in The Met’s collection.
No longer designing alone, Smith works full-time at Balenciaga. “I think you never stop learning throughout your life. It’s a great place to work. I love working there now and it’s a really good place to learn the ropes, for sure. It is the best place to work in the industry. There are no limits.”
His mother’s pride had been neatly put away – she had stealthily folded their seat cards in the inside pocket of her son’s chicly over-the-top Balenciaga coat. In New York for a media preview, Smith said good-naturedly, “I didn’t expect to be invited to the gala, especially after seeing the ticket prices this year. [$75,000 a pop and $350,000 for a table]. No, I’ll leave that space to someone with deeper pockets than me.”
Next to the “touch wall” in the exhibit, Jones rubbed the scented wallpaper to smell a piece of clothing. The milliner, who was “happy as a pint” with a hat he designed 15 years ago for John Galliano on display, gave high marks for the multi-sensory elements of the exhibition. “So that’s how we experience clothes – what it feels like, what it smells like and everything. But when you see a fashion show you only see it visually,” said Jones. “This makes it more personal. I think it’s a great way to go.”
It was a great encouragement to Jones that the galleries were crowded with people. “It’s quite interesting that people are stopping to take a break in a way that they wouldn’t before,” Jones said. “It changes the experience. Maybe people will actually spend time watching shows.”
He described how he had recently done some research in the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where he noticed a reference in the 1950s to art openings called “the sherry snatchers” because people used to come in for a drink. get without looking at the art. ” Jones continued, “Maybe this show will work in the same way that people will come to see this exhibition as an artisanal experience and not just something that looks pretty.”
Lim said later in the day via email that the algae sequin suit he made with Charlotte McCurdy, a designer with a carbon neutral mindset, was an experiment “to reimagine how we interact with our natural world”. He added, “On a personal level, the best way to honor AANHPI Heritage Month is to have my immigrant surname inducted into this esteemed American institution.”
While Upper East Side traffic was slow near the Met on Monday morning, a pro-Palestinian protest at Hunter College’s main campus caused further disruption. By Monday evening, school officials had moved the classes on the main campus to complete isolation from 3 pm onwards. A Hunter spokesman said, “We made this decision out of an abundance of caution.”
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