Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Explores Role of Fashion Models as Muses of Recent Eras
Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Explores Role of Fashion Models as Muses of Recent Eras
Gala Benefit May 4, 2009, with Honorary Chair Marc Jacobs and Co-Chairs Kate Moss, Justin Timberlake, and Anna Wintour
Exhibition dates: May 6–August 9, 2009
Exhibition location: The Tisch Galleries, second floor
Press preview: Monday, May 4, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion, the spring 2009 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will explore the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, focusing on iconic fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras. The exhibition will be on view at the Metropolitan from May 6 through August 9, 2009.
Website: http://www.metmuseum.org/press_room/full_release.asp?prid=%7BFB79B223-901D-4EFC-AB9D-074201667EBD%7D
The exhibition is made possible by Marc Jacobs.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.
"The exhibition will examine a timeline of fashion from 1947 to 1997 through the idealized aesthetic of the fashion model," said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. "We will look at the power of clothing, fashion photography, and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, becoming more than a muse to designers or photographers – she can become a muse to a generation."
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, the Museum's Costume Institute Gala Benefit will take place on Monday, May 4, 2009. Marc Jacobs will serve as Honorary Chair of the Gala. Co-Chairs are Kate Moss; Justin Timberlake; and Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue.
The exhibition will feature approximately 70 masterworks of haute couture and ready-to-wear. Fashion editorial, advertising, and runway photography plus video footage of models, actresses, socialites, and rock stars who epitomize their epochs, will be used throughout the galleries to explicate the fashion zeitgeist.