The countdown has begun to what is undoubtedly fashion’s biggest night (and, no, I’m not talking about the Oscars). The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2010 Costume Institute spring exhibit, “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity,” will open to the public next week following Monday night’s celebrity-meets-fashion gala. While both the gala and the exhibit are being generously underwritten by Gap, for all non-marketing purposes, the show should be blockbuster.
Visitors to the exhibit will be greeted with a visual of Manhattan’s iconic Washington Square Arch framing the entrance to Lenny Kravitz’s “American Song” serving as the soundtrack to the finale photo and video installation of America’s female icons then and now. In short, be prepared to take a journey through America’s past through the fashion lens.
Set in a series of intimate vignettes, the Met is promising to bring to fruition the different stages of the American female identity, from “The Heiress” in a room inspired by Mrs. Astor’s Newport mansion and garments by Charles Frederick Worth, to “The Gibson Girl” exploring sports in all seasons, and “The Bohemian,” who seems right at home in environs inspired by the Tiffany Studios.
Given the current state of the nation, it’s no wonder the exhibit pays particular political attention via galleries devoted to “Suffragists” and “Patriots”–complete with actual footage of the movement marches and banners from the era. “The Flapper” era follows, representing the sexual and economic emancipation of women in a skyscraper backdrop loosely inspired by Tamara de Lempicka’s Art Deco paintings.
The exhibition’s pièce de résistance, however, may be the “Screen Siren,” which in one facet put America on the world’s radar and helped coin the phrase, “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Mannequins dressed in to-die-for glamour gowns are set against screens broadcasting scenes from a series of iconic Thirties movies starring such Hollywood icons such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth.
“American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity”
May 5, 2010-August 15, 2010
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, 2nd floor
I would`ve made the theme a little different. The way they chose it, doesn`t make me so interested in buying anything.