Sleeping Beauties - Reawakening Fashion
Sometimes Revenge is chic!
“Fashion is everything that goes out of fashion.” - Jean Cocteau
Admit it, there’s nothing in your closet that will ever end up in the conservation archives of a museum. We everyday earth people just don’t dress like that. When the Met Museum’s Costume Institute opens its newest exhibition, Sleeping Beauties - Reawakening Fashion, it will present, in fantastic format, dresses that have been designed for, and worn by, some of the most famous women in history. The Met Museum has the distinct honor of creating the template for the modern day fashion exhibition, most famously with Savage Beauty, its tribute to British Designer Alexander McQueen. As a result of that show’s success, the world’s great museums now include a major fashion exhibit in their yearly calendars.
But, celebrity dressing is not what the Met’s exhibit is all about and the Met Gala, although one of the museum’s largest fundraising events, isn’t either. Andrew Bolton, the Curator for the Costume Institute, conducts exhaustive research to produce shows that dig deep into the DNA of fashion and how it influences and mirrors society. This isn’t fast fashion! This year’s theme promises to highlight the meticulous process of couture creation and contains a hidden undertone which may play out at the exhibits opening, the Met Gala. We could rename the show, “The art of revenge dressing.” Let’s dig deeper.
Two years ago, Kim Kardashian caused an uproar when she wore Marilyn Monroe’s famous Happy Birthday Mr. President Dress which was acquired by Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum and lent to Kim, who starved herself down to 118 lbs to get into the sheer and shimmering sheath. Immediately, rumours began circulating that the dress was damaged over the course of the evening, but have been disproven. However, due to the age of the dress, its delicacy and history, fashion conservators were outraged, arguing that irreparable harm was done to a historical cultural artifact. Costume Institute Chair, Met Museum Trustee, and Vogue Editor in chief, Anna Wintour, promoted Kardashian’s preparations for the event, in the hope of garnering more coverage, and more money, through a brand rub with the celeb. The backfire was instant and immense. Thus the shade begins with this year’s exhibit theme and the language in the notes which attempts to refocus on fashion conservation rather than celebrity adoration.
“The exhibition will breathe new life into these storied objects through creative and immersive activations designed to convey the smells, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body.” - From the Met Museum Exhibit Notes
Sleeping Beauties will feature dresses from the Costume Institute’s archives, brought back to life through technology, and with all the buzz about AI, you can bet there will be some of that. Viewers can experience what the dresses looked like when they were actually worn, not just hanging on mannequins. After all, dresses are made to be worn and deserve to live and breathe more than one night only. That brings us back to the shadier side of the theme - Revenge.
Here are three favorite revenge moments and the dresses that caused all the commotion. They may not be on view this spring at the Met, but they demonstrate the power of revenge as a force in fashion. It sure would be nice to see them spring back to life through Andrew Bolton’s alchemy and sorcery.
Princess Diana, newly divorced from Prince Charles, was on a revenge dress tour. She wore a Dior dress designed by John Galliano for the 1996 Met Gala. Critics said that the dress looked like a slip and unfitting of a princess. Galiano had just been named designer for the house and Princess Diana’s nod to him was the stamp of approval that launched a slip dress revolution and reawakened the sleepy House of Dior. Its owner, Bernard Arnault, and LVMH are still benefiting from that support.
Marilyn Monroe’s Happy Birthday Mr. President Dress was scandalous for its body conscious fit and nearly nude sheerness. Marilyn, no Jackie O, was rumored to be sleeping with both JFK and RFK, further fanning the scandal flames. Men across the world knew how lucky the Kennedy boys must be to “spend time” with Marilyn, America’s hottest playmate. Their wives might not approve, but secretly followed suit by adopting a more body conscious silhouette. It’s not hard to see why fifty years later, Kim Kardashian, who has had to claw her way into fashion’s inner circle, would want some of that magic.
Cher wore a Bob Mackie outfit to present the 1986 Oscar for best supporting actor Overlooked for best supporting actress the year prior, she took the opportunity to show the Academy, and the world, how a superstar dresses. She got her revenge in her presentation of the award saying, “As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress.” She went on to win the Best Actress Oscar in 1987 for her role in Moonstruck.
Sometimes revenge is chic!
“The Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, will reactivate the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s collection through first-hand research, conservation analysis, and diverse technologies—from cutting-edge tools, artificial intelligence, and computer-generated imagery to traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection, and soundscapes.
Approximately 250 garments and accessories spanning four centuries will be on view, visually united by iconography related to nature, which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion and a vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal. The exhibition will breathe new life into these storied objects through creative and immersive activations designed to convey the smells, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body.”
From the exhibit notes courtesy of Met Museum.
We’ll have to wait to see if Kim Kardashian can outdo her Marilyn Moment with an even bigger revenge. More will be revealed, no doubt.
Spotlight will post a more detailed review of the exhibit once it opens.
Sleeping Beauties - Reawakening Fashion is on view May 10 - Sept 2, 2024.