NEW YORK – You certainly don’t have to tell Beyoncé this: fashion, when deployed properly, is nothing less than art. Now, the fashion-forward superstar will have another chance to make that point.
When she co-chairs the Met Gala in May, all eyes will be glued to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see how one of the most watched women on the planet interprets the dress code: **“Fashion is Art.”** This will be Beyoncé’s eighth gala appearance.
The museum announced the dress code Monday, along with some gala-related details, including new guest names. Joining the top co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, tennis champion Venus Williams, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour is a “host committee” chaired by designer Anthony Vaccarello and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz.
The host committee features an exciting lineup, including Sabrina Carpenter, Teyana Taylor, Lena Dunham, and Misty Copeland. Recent additions to the list include actor Angela Bassett and athlete Aimee Mullins. They, along with everyone else attending, will be figuring out what to wear come May 4.
The dress code seems purposely chosen for maximum flexibility. Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, quips, “Hopefully, it will put an end to the rather obsolete ‘Is Fashion Art?’ debate once and for all.”
### Looking at ‘The Dressed Body’ Through the Centuries
For Bolton, the main event is the exhibit itself. As gala-watchers already know, the Met Gala is not only a fundraiser for the Costume Institute—a self-funding department—but also a launchpad for the annual spring fashion exhibit.
Curated by Bolton and his team, this year’s show, **“Costume Art,”** seeks to present fashion as a through-line in the entire history of art. The exhibit will be the largest in terms of objects the institute has ever done: nearly 400 in total, consisting of 200 garments and 200 artworks from around the museum, thoughtfully paired.
“It’s a beast,” Bolton said, appearing slightly exhausted while guiding a reporter through the early stages of the exhibit during a recent visit.
The idea is to examine *“the dressed body”* in all its aspects and to make the point that not only is fashion art—as previous shows have shown—but that art is fashion.
“It’s reversing what we’ve done before,” Bolton explains. “Now we’re looking at art through the lens of fashion.”
### A Dialogue Between Art and Fashion
What this means in practice is that visitors might see an art object in a glass case—say, a vase from ancient Greece—with a garment from the museum’s vast costume collection displayed above it. The garment will echo the fashion depicted on the figures in the vase, creating a compelling dialogue between art and apparel.
### Behind the Scenes: Walls Full of Post-it Notes
At present, that vase is represented by a small color snapshot, one among dozens adorning the walls of a small conference room deep within the museum, alongside countless Post-it notes.
Bolton has spent extensive time in this space, which curiously resembles a very cultured teenager’s room. He walks along the walls, pointing out 12 sections organized to showcase the diversity of bodies and body types throughout art history.
Some categories are pervasive, like the classical body or the naked body. Others have been largely overlooked, such as the disabled body, the aging body, or the corpulent body.
Bolton notes that in art, the corpulent body has almost exclusively been used as a fertility symbol. “It’s like the notion that corpulence does not exist without fertility,” he says.
Then there’s the pregnant body, also much overlooked in both art and fashion history. This theme is represented by the pairing of Edgar Degas’ *Pregnant Woman*—a naturalist sculpture offering a rare 19th-century perspective on maternity—and a 1986 dress by designer Georgina Godley, featuring exaggerated padded curves described as “a radical feminist critique” of traditional fashion.
### Emphasizing Diversity and Inclusion
The exhibit strives to emphasize diversity in body types and aims to enable viewers to see themselves reflected in the fashions. Accordingly, some mannequins will feature heads with polished steel surfaces—mirrors designed by artist Samar Hejazi—that invite introspection and engagement.
### A Splashy New Home for Fashion at the Met
Bolton, who has curated the Met’s biggest costume shows, says he felt special pressure to do “something spectacular” with this exhibit. That’s partly because **“Costume Art”** inaugurates a prominent new home for the museum’s fashion exhibits.
The new Conde M. Nast Galleries, created from what was formerly the museum’s retail store, will occupy nearly 12,000 square feet (1,115 square meters) just off the museum’s Great Hall.
This new location offers premier convenience: gala guests can view the exhibit and then easily stroll to the dinner portion of the evening at the Temple of Dendur, or toggle between the two.
A more lasting benefit is that the new galleries will prevent the long lines that have tested patience in prior years once the exhibit opens publicly on May 10.
The galleries, still in the final stages of completion, consist of two main rooms with contrasting heights—one with an 18-foot ceiling and the other with a 9-foot ceiling. The design encourages visitors to weave in and out of each space.
“There’s a permeability,” Bolton says.
### A Highlight of Bolton’s Career and a Statement of Intent
Bolton calls the new show one of the highlights of his career and a clear statement of intent.
“We’re trying to make a statement here that this is something *WE* can do at the Met,” he explains. “We have access to 16 curatorial departments across the museum.”
And, of course, access to the Costume Institute’s collection of more than 33,000 garments.
“Really, nobody else has this capacity,” Bolton emphasizes.
He hopes the show will inaugurate not only new galleries but also an era of collaboration with the rest of the museum—one that truly puts fashion forward.
**“Costume Art”** will run from May 10, 2024, through January 10, 2027.
https://abc7.com/post/met-gala-guests-learn-dress-code-fashion-is-art/18651102/
