The thematic exhibition presents a dialogue between fashion and medieval art masterpieces from The Met collection (The Metropolitan Museum of Art NY) proposed through a study to examine fashion's ongoing engagement with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism. A group of papal robes and accessories from the Vatican serves as the cornerstone of the exhibition, highlighting the ongoing influence of liturgical vestments on designers.
“The Catholic imagination is rooted in and sustained by artistic practice, and fashion's embrace of sacred images, objects and customs continues the evolving relationship between art and religion,” said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met . “The Museum's collection of Western Byzantine and Medieval Art, combined with the architecture and galleries that house these collections at The Met, provide the perfect backdrop for these extraordinary fashions.”
The exhibition sees around 40 ecclesiastical masterpieces from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen outside the Vatican. Encompassing more than 15 papacies from the 1983th to the XNUMXst centuries, these masterpieces are displayed in the galleries of the Anna Wintour Costume Center: papal vestments and accessories, such as rings and tiaras. The last time the Vatican sent a loan of this size to The Met was in XNUMX, for The Vatican Collections exhibition, which was the museum's third most-visited "show."
Providing interpretive context for fashion's engagement with Catholicism are more than 150 examples of primarily women's clothing, from the early XNUMXth century to the present, on display in the Byzantine and Medieval Galleries, in part of the Robert Lehman Wing, and at The Met Cloisters alongside medieval art from The Met collection. The presentation places these drawings in the broader context of religious artistic production to analyze their connection with the historiography of material Christianity and their contribution to the construction of the Catholic imagination.
Among the designers on display are AFVandevorst, Azzedine Alaïa, Cristobal Balenciaga, Geoffrey Beene, Marc Bohan (for House of Dior), Thom Browne, Roberto Capucci, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Gabrielle Chanel, Sorelle Fontana, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana (for Dolce & Gabbana), John Galliano (for House of Dior and his label), Jean Paul Gaultier, Robert Goossens (for Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent), Craig Green, Madame Grès (Alix Barton), Demna Gvasalia (for Balenciaga ), Rosella Jardini (for Moschino), Stephen Jones, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld (for House of Chanel), Jeanne Lanvin, Shaun Leane, Henri Matisse, Claire McCardell, Laura and Kate Mulleavy (for Rodarte), Thierry Mugler, Rick Owens , Carli Pearson (for Cimone), Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli (for Valentino), Pierpaolo Piccioli (for Valentino), Stefano Pilati (for Saint Laurent), Gareth Pugh, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Raf Simons (for his label and House of Dior), Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (for Viktor & Rolf), Olivier Theyskens, Riccardo Tisci, Jun Takahashi (for Undercover), Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton (for Preen), Philip Treacy, Duke Fulco di Verdura ( for Gabrielle Chanel), Donatella Versace (for Versace), Gianni Versace and Valentino.
