The Costume Institute’s fall exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Met) is a tribute to female creation. “Women Dressing Women” is a statement of intent from the show’s first panel. Creative women, artisans and artists who, with their designs and their different visions of women, have covered the female universe, always making them protagonists, sometimes objects, but never passive subjects in relation to clothing. The more than 80 costumes on display, part of the Institute’s permanent collection, cover the fashion industry chronologically, artistically and commercially with two main axes, Paris and New York, in a network of names and houses – the so-called companies. – that combines haute couture and street fashion, the most sophisticated tradition of the Old Continent and the American avant-garde and utilitarianism.
The exhibition, which opens this Thursday and remains open until March 3, 2024, begins with a selection of black and white photographs projected in a loop, showing the work of tailors, tailors and seamstresses from anonymous workshops between 1907 and 1962 . Even the shy fittings for a client or pictures of the first shows in private salons, when the designers did not yet have a name, let alone the planetary dimension that they have acquired in recent decades (and in recent years thanks to celebrations like The Big One The Met’s annual fashion show and fashion gala, the phenomenon of spring.
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This black and white homage features the forerunners of the more than 70 creators who bring dreams to life with a needle and thimble. The exhibition traces the lineage of the most influential fashion houses (although only a few remain, Maison Dior and the House of Chanel) run by women in the last century. Pioneers such as the Venetian textiles of Adèle Henriette Nigrin de Fortuny, the exquisite Madeleine Vionnet, the Spanish Ana de Pombo, one of the last designers of the French house of Paquin (1891-1956); or Elsa Schiaparelli, responsible for her own brand, perhaps the first creator with a first and last name and in turn the subject of an exhibition at the Met in 2012 in which the Italian maintained an imaginary dialogue with another famous compatriot, Miuccia Prada. The exhibition does not lack big names (Chanel, the aforementioned Miuccia Prada, Marchesa, Rodarte), but the unknown and forgotten of the time also stands out, such as the selection of ethereal creations from the first decades of the 20th century.
General view of the main room of the exhibition “Women Dressing Women” at the Met in New York.The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the workshops where seamstresses, milliners, apprentices and tailors toiled for decades, the figure of the designer was forged with his first and last name. An introductory panel on the selection of anonymous photos reminds us: “In the centers of French and European fashion, the right of women to dress other women was a slowly won privilege” as men dominated the industry. It took a long time for workers to assert themselves before unions were deregulated. In the United States, however, the profession was seen as a natural, industrious extension of domestic duties: sewing as an inherently feminine profession.
One of the rooms at “Women Dressing Women,” the fall fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan in New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Because fashion created by women has helped to empower women, but sometimes also the creators themselves, explained Max Hollein, director of the Met, at the press launch of the exhibition this Monday. “This exhibition invites us to reflect on women’s crucial contributions to fashion from the early 20th century to the present, highlighting historically undervalued voices and celebrating the celebrity they have achieved. The garments on display are an example of the countless women whose contributions have been and continue to be the lifeblood of the global fashion industry as we know it today.”
Lobby of the “Women Dressing Women” exhibition with creations by Vionnet, Schiaparelli and Gabrielle Chanel and other designers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Also in attendance at the presentation was the world’s most influential fashion curator, Andrew Bolton, chief curator of the Costume Institute and right-hand man to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful fashion editor of Condé Nast and architect of the Met Fashion Gala. “Women have been crucial to the success of the Costume Institute since its inception. The founders include several inspiring women; Therefore, the institution remains dedicated to honoring the artistic, technical and social achievements of women. “They are part of fashion history.”
Mad Carpentier evening dress from the late 1940s, on view at the Met until next March. Anna-Marie Kellen © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
For Mellissa Huber, assistant curator at the Costume Institute, the fall exhibition is an opportunity to “learn the crucial stories of innovative women designers who have played a fundamental role in the conception of fashion as we know it.” “Women’s contribution to fashion cannot be quantified, but our intention with this exhibition is to celebrate the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, which represents a rich chronology of Western fashion.” As Hollein emphasized, fashion is a symbol of female power, of emancipation, but also the result of one gigantic collaborative work. Through these three dimensions (chronological, conceptual and commercial), fashion is also the triumph of social progress, the powerful vehicle of social, financial and creative autonomy for women. As Ted Pick, co-president of Morgan Stanley, which sponsors the exhibition’s luxurious catalog, points out in a statement, “the milestone is that today three Parisian haute couture houses – Chanel, Dior and Iris van Herpen – are represented by powerful women be directed.” .”
One of the rooms of the Met’s fall exhibition, featuring designs by Ester Manas, Balthazaar Delpierre, Purchase, Millia Davenport, Adèle Henriette and Elisabeth Nigrin Fortuny. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“The common thread between different generations of working women shows how later generations have built and expanded the legacy of their predecessors. The exhibition reflects the intergenerational dialogue between these designers and the talented women who worked with them from a temporal perspective, with a contemporary approach,” explains Karen Van Godtsenhoven, co-curator of the exhibition. To give just one example of those silent dialogues between the pieces on display, characterized by the strict scenography: the direct connection between the characteristic Fortuny fold and the textile origami of Comme des Garçons reveals the continuum to which the specialists allude You organized the exhibition. Just as between the conceptual punk of Vivienne Westwood and the groundbreaking dress with metal pieces incorporated into silk, with which the house of Vionnet reinterpreted the syntax of ancient Greek ceramic painting in 1924: tradition as modernity and vice versa; the eternal of fashion and art.
As a detail of this heritage, it is worth taking a look at the heads of the mannequins that display the clothes in the first room, that of the Pioneers: they are crowned by the timeless shapes of a classical Greek column.
“Theodosia” (ca. 1925), tunic by Maria Monaci Gallenga for her fashion house Gallenga. Anna-Marie Kellen © The Metropolitan Museum of Art