Dispatch from the Met: Sleeping Beauties

I don’t go to the Met’s Costume Institute exhibition every year (sorrynotsorry, Karl Lagerfeld, but I just don’t care that much). But this year’s theme, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, seemed like a show worth braving the inevitable crowds and lines to see.

So off I went, armed with my camera and as much patience as I could muster, to experience the “sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s collection through first-hand research, conservation analysis, and diverse technologies.” Or simply to look at pretty things and be inspired.

Herewith, a few of my thoughts.

all photos copyright Casey Barber – please be respectful and don’t use without permission!

Come for the sights and sounds, not the smells

I know we’re all technically here for the clothes, but the ceiling animations and video elements were some of the coolest parts of the show.

Some rooms had rotunda ceilings onto which animations were projected — offering closeups of textile elements or playing off the theme of the room, as with flying birds, floating feathers, or flower petals unfurling. #lookup, for real!

Check out this one, which brings embroidery to life:

Beyond the animations, my favorite installations were, somewhat surprisingly, all the hats.

If you had asked, “Why don’t you go look at a bunch of flower hats and fascinators?”, of course I would have been interested. But I didn’t expect to be completely transfixed by these rows of frivolity!

The vegetable and produce-themed vignettes were, unsurprisingly, the scene-stealers for me. I was thrilled to see the return of the beaded cauliflower fascinator, which first stole my heart as part of the 2019 Camp exhibition.

And look at the Stephen Treacy produce stand hat! And a borlotti bean fascinator! I’m just going to leave a whole bunch here for you to swoon over.

There were other fun sensory elements in the galleries, like audio clips of Morgan Spector reading “In Flanders Field” in the poppy-themed room (now I know why he wore what he wore to the Met Gala!), but the smell element didn’t pass the sniff test for me.

Ostensibly, the tubes snaking around the galleries offered chemical whiffs of the items inside the cases, but they were awkward to access and didn’t really add much to my experience.

Oh yeah, and those pretty dresses

I couldn’t get shots of every clothing item I wanted to document because of the crowds (more on that below). But I loved seeing some of the memorable McQueens previously viewed in that blockbuster exhibition again — namely the razor clamshell dress and the butterfly dress.

(The razor clam dress also had an excellent audio component, where you could hear the clicky-clatter of the shells in motion as the dress was worn.)

And I’m always here for some Marni!

Accessibility: C+

Honestly, I’m not sure why the Met’s exhibition designers don’t plan for wider pathways in anticipation of the crowds. Y’all, you know there’s going to be a crush of people moving through the space pretty much all the time. Why are we being herded down narrow hallways that don’t allow us to clearly see half the items on display?

Much like in the Camp show, the wall texts and item descriptions were in awkward or low places that made them difficult to read without holding up the flow of traffic.

Similarly, there were a few rooms in which you had to circle around or double back to see every item on display.

And hilariously, many pieces were in alcoves that weren’t glass-fronted, but which had extremely sensitive sensors. So amongst the audio, there would be a constant warning of “you are too close! step back!” We all had to laugh at this because it was, frankly, impossible not to be within the “too close” range.

I’d love to return and take another look with some breathing room, but who knows if that will be possible?