My favorite thing to do is spend hours at the Met with no other plan and no cell phone (except for photography).
I have been a proud member since the mid 80's. Growing up, my Dad would take me to the Met on most Sundays. Just the two of us. I never got tired of it. I knew that touching the artwork was prohibited but I did it anyway when I thought the guards weren't looking. I believed that if I touched the objects into which these artists had poured their creativity, it would rub off on me. I was caught a few times and chastised appropriately, but the guards did that with a smile on their faces. Even with a job to do, they understood the desire to connect with the things that move us.
I had been wanting to go to this exhibit for a while now and finally got there. It was worth the wait.
I make a point to attend each Costume Institute show, and 2022 In America: An Anthology of Fashion is no exception. Spanning over 13 of the period rooms in the museum’s American Wing, the juxtaposition of fashion in these rooms and spaces is beautiful!
Paying special attention to previously unnamed or anonymous designers, In America: An Anthology of Fashion is in a way the second part of last year’s show, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. Anthology traces the roots and histories of design over the last few centuries in the United States.
Curator Andrew Bolton described the impact of this show to Vogue as such; The designers included largely came from “research that we’ve been doing in our own collection archives. We’ve been exploring untold stories and focusing on designers who have been almost written out of fashion history because they weren’t commercially successful or they had a short career span, but at the time had a big impact on American fashion.”
Bolton recruited a handful of famous directors to design each vignette on display in the museum; from Sofia Coppola to Tom Ford to Martin Scorsese (who happened to design the Frank Lloyd Wright room, my personal favorite!)
Considering the role a museum plays in contemporary and historic fashion, Bolton admits these vignettes have been on his mind for a while. In an effort to refocus the viewers' attention to the craftsmanship and significance of these objects, Bolton is stepping away from the white boxes of past shows, and interacting with the time period in a way that feels both traditional and fresh once again.
While Anthology is the major new draw for the Costume Institute, in mid-March, pieces were added and updated to the Lexicon show, including the viral quilt worn by A$AP Rocky at the 2021 Gala.
The quilt, found secondhand, and relined by designer Eli Russel Linnetz parallels perfectly with the focus on anonymous or unnamed designers. The original quilt in question was created by Mary Ann Beshers, and donated by her family to a local thrift store.
Beshers’ granddaughter, Sarah, recognized the now famous quilt as being that of her late grandmothers, and recognition is now given to Beshers as the original maker of the object. But, Anthology, echoes the question of what happens to other trailers, seamstresses and designers who did not get their moment of public recognition, but whose work has contributed significantly to the evolution of American fashion?
Included in Anthology is the designer Ann Lowe, who we did a blog on a few years ago - you can read that here! Director Julie Dash created her scene with some of Lowe’s most famous pieces, but also the black-clad mannequins playing the role of designer who remain obscured from view.
In America: An Anthology of Fashion in a layered and beautiful show, telling cascading stories of identity, racism, politics and beauty. It is absolutely not to be missed; do what you can to make it to the Met, before the show closes, alongside In America: A Lexicon of Fashion on September 5, 2022.
Addendum
I am so pleased and proud to share a bit of the process behind my Venice Biennale exhibit, Ode to Color!