Inside the Costume Institute’s In America: An Anthology of Fashion Exhibit
COURTESY OF THE MET
The Costume Institute’s In America: An Anthology of Fashion is the second portion of a two-part exhibition exploring fashion in the United States. Presented in collaboration with The Met’s American Wing, this section of the exhibition highlights narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of American fashion. Men’s and women’s dress dating from the eighteenth century to the present will be featured in vignettes installed in select period rooms and will display a survey of more than two hundred years of American life and tell a variety of stories—from the personal to the political, the stylistic to the cultural, and the aesthetic to the ideological. The exhibition will reflect on these narratives through a series of three-dimensional cinematic “freeze frames” produced in collaboration with notable American film directors. These pieces explore the role of dress in shaping American identity and address the complex and layered histories of the rooms. “Fashion is both a harbinger of cultural shifts and a record of the forces, beliefs, and events that shape our lives,” said Max Hollein, the Marina Kellen French Director of The Met. “This two-part exhibition considers how fashion reflects evolving notions of identity in America and explores a multitude of perspectives through presentations that speak with powerful immediacy to some of the complexities of history. In looking at the past through this lens, we can consider the aesthetic and cultural impact of fashion on historical aspects of American life.” (MET site). Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, said: “American fashion has traditionally been described through the language of sportswear and ready-to-wear, emphasizing principles of simplicity, practicality, functionality, and egalitarianism. Drastically simpler than European fashion, American fashion tends to sit in direct opposition to that of haute couture. Part Two further investigates the evolving language of American fashion through a series of collaborations with American film directors who will visualize the unfinished stories inherent in The Met’s period rooms.”
COURTESY OF THE MET
COURTESY OF VOGUE
COURTESY OF VOGUE
From the years 1670 to 1915, the interiors include a Shaker Retiring Room from the 1830s that explores the defining characteristics of American sportswear, such as utility, simplicity, and practicality, through the work of Claire McCardell. A 19th-century parlor from Richmond, Virginia, features the intricate designs of Fannie Criss, a highly regarded local dressmaker active at the turn of the 20th century. John Vanderlyn’s panoramic 1819 mural of Versailles will set the stage for a re-creation of the historic 1973 “Battle of Versailles” that pitted American designers against their French counterparts. A 20th-century living room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright highlights the architectural gowns of Charles James to examine notions of creative genius and the tensions between artist and patron. What the exhibition does throughout 13 period rooms is it exalts the heroes of American and the less-glamorous backbone of American style. Without its obvious touchpoints like Levi’s jeans or Nike sneakers, “Anthology” presents the hands, hearts, and minds that shaped the look and feel of what today would be called American style.