On the avenue today before The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is frosty, with a selection of clothing that reflects the weather—pedestrians are hastening by with scarves and tweed coats drawn to their chins. But soon the rush of passing garments will change. In the spring, when the trees of Central Park grow fragrant and the asphalt warms, people wearing dresses in soft fabrics will pass scatterings of tourists out on the museum steps. At the start of May, a red carpet will draw up the staircase, and guests dressed for the Met Gala will catch camera flashes on their way inside. By tradition, that will be high fashion’s brightest moment, when an outfit and a personality bring each other most entirely to life. Then the attendees will enter the museum, where, most years, they would tour an exhibition of historic dresses whose wearers are long vanished, and whose fabrics are now frozen in place.
“It’s something we always struggle with—that, once a garment comes into the museum, a lot of the sensorial experiences that we take for granted with clothing are lost,” Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge at the Costume Institute, explains this morning, over tea, in a dimly lit conference room inside The Met. Photographs of more than 50 clothing items are pinned to the wall. “The positive part of it is that we’re custodians of the clothing, here to take care of it in perpetuity,” he goes on. “But that involves very specific conditions: You can’t touch it, you can’t smell it, it can’t be worn. And you can’t hear it.”
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
WOMAN TO WOMAN
Chemena Kamali's debut for Chloé was notable most of all for the way it connected with so many. Chloe Schama meets the designer whose name is on everyone's lips.
In Wonderland
Coach creative director Stuart Vevers and husband Ben Seidler's country cottage on 40 rolling acres is filled with antiques, flea market finds and their gorgeous young twins.
SUPERNOVA
A searingly modern take on Sunset Boulevard, starring Nicole Scherzinger at the height of her powers, comes to the New York stage.
Mr. Happy
Kieran Culkin as electric an actor as he is a constitutionally ambivalent one-anchors the dark comic indie A Real Pain, and is leading Glengarry Glen Ross to Broadway. It's a lot to process.
SHAPE SHIFTER
Who is Lady Gaga now? A Hollywood superstar, a pop innovator, and a much happier, more grounded creature altogether. But as Jonathan Van Meter discovers, she's still an ever-evolving puzzle all her own. Photographed by Ethan James Green.
An Un-Still Life
The vibrant paintings of Hilary Pecis pulse with energy.
Giddyup Cup
The storied Austrian glassware maker Lobmeyr looks to the American West.
What's Going On With Pants?
The current (and oft-confusing) proliferation of them mirrors our lives today. By Maya Singer.
Full Flower
Erdem Moralioglu plants a new seed with his bloom-adorned bag.
Out of the Box
A biopic made from Legosfor Pharrell Williams.