“Women Dressing Women” is the title of a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Before the next MET Gala 2024 The famous museum’s Costume Institute explores the work and artistic heritage of women fashion designers who have played a key role in the modern concept of fashion. The exhibition traces the lineage of professional women from the early 20th century to the present: famous designers as well as forgotten female names in the fashion industry. Half of the almost one hundred objects are exhibited for the first time to the general public. Report by our New York correspondent Nina Vishneva. A woman’s perspective on “women dressing women.”
Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli… The three graces of fashion are immediately put into circulation and then, through Betsey Johnson, Sonia Rykiel and several dozen other stars of different status, they are introduced into the universe of fashion. feminine fashion. A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, “Women Dressing Women,” is a true tribute to several generations of professional women.
Melissa Huber, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, admits that she always wanted to organize an exhibition dedicated to the creativity of women in fashion.
“Partly because I’ve always been fascinated by the interwar period in France, which was the only time in fashion history when women truly surpassed their male creative counterparts and led fashion trends.”
Melissa Huber, along with her colleague at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, Karen Van Gotzenhoven, began working on this project back in 2019. The collection was scheduled to be shown a year later, to mark the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States . But the coronavirus temporarily proved stronger than the suffragettes.
In an interview with the Russian service Voice of America, Karen Van Gotzenhoven said that due to the pandemic, fashion experts have had more time to explore the entire MET Costume Institute collection.
“35 thousand items are kept in the Costume Institute. In a way, we were lucky that the show was postponed, there was more time to work.”
Creativity, entrepreneurship, sustainability, breaking stereotypes, gender fluidity, communication between generations – all this is on mannequins and behind glass windows. “Women Dress Women” is not only about beautiful rags, but also about the position of women in society.
Thus, Katharin Hamnet realized in the early 1980s that the best way to reflect on acute social issues is with oversized T-shirts with text prints. And even earlier, an unknown African American woman, Ann Lowe, broke the boundaries of segregation with fluffy pink carnations. And although few will remember her name, everyone knows her wedding dress for Jacqueline Kennedy.
Curator Melisa Huber emphasized that the Met intentionally brought together famous, unknown and forgotten women designers.
“Of course, this is one of the aspects of the exhibition. We had at our disposal the incredible collection of the Costume Institute, we studied the archives and discovered things, many of which not even fashion specialists know about.”
Another aspect of the exhibition: fashion is a collective activity. Dressmakers work alongside their clients in the same way that creative directors rely on the experience of their workshops.
Museum workers also paid tribute to the tailors who dominated the European clothing industry before the creation of the seamstresses’ guild in 1675, and took into account new challenges. For example, fashion projects for people with special needs. Jasmine Soi, designer of the Danish clothing line Customiety, brought one of the dresses for girls with genetic dwarfism (dwarfism) to New York.
“There are two such dresses in our collection: black and pink. This is something special. The dress is for that special woman who wants to go out to a cocktail with friends.”
Some of the exhibits come from the personal bins of Sandy Schreier, a fashion historian. Sandy Schreier has the largest private collection of rare clothing in the world. She has been buying Houte Couture her entire life, but hardly ever wears it. It is true that she will make an exception at the reception on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition at the Metropolitan.
“Yes, I will wear a Donna Karan outfit from her collection with Robert Lee Morris. There will be a skirt with a belt and jewelry. I have collected all of her jewelry works. The only thing I couldn’t wear from the ’80s were shoes with heels that were too high. I wouldn’t risk my life for Donna Karan… Although no,” Sandy Schreier smiles, “I would risk my life for fashion and for Donna Karan.”
With the “Women Dressing Women” collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is clearly testing audiences ahead of its main event, the MET Gala, whose theme is even more feminist: “Sleeping Beauties: The Awakening of Fashion.”
