This is going to be MADNESS.
Every year Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts the famous Met Gala. Formally called the Costume Institute Gala and also known as the Met Ball, is an annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. It marks the grand opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibit. Each year’s event celebrates the theme of that year’s Costume Institute exhibition, and the exhibition sets the tone for the formal dress of the night since guests are expected to choose their fashion to match the theme of the exhibit. Each year, celebrities are chosen to serve as the event’s honorary chairs.
Left: El Greco, Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541–1609), c. 1600, oil on canvas; right: Evening Coat, Cristóbal Balenciaga for Balenciaga, Autumn/Winter 1954–55 / Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Digital Composite Scan by Katerina Jebb
Next spring, the Costume Institute will sanctify its love of fashion as it presents the exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” It will also be the theme of the Met Gala 2018!
The huge exhibition, on view May 10–October 8, presenting the long-lived dialogue between fashion and the masterworks of religious art in the museum’s holdings will be displayed in a trinity of locations: the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the medieval galleries at the Met’s Fifth Avenue location, and further uptown at the Cloisters. Central to the conversation will be the papal garb on loan from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen outside the Vatican. Wow.
The show will include houte-couture pieces from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Donatella Versace, who is a sponsor. Among the 150 or so ensembles that will be on display are pieces by Coco Chanel, who was educated by nuns, and John Galliano, whose transgressive Fall 2000 Couture collection for Christian Dior opened with a pope-like figure who proceeded down the runway to a voice intoning: “Understand the concept of love.” It seems that the show will include also one of my favorite, Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2013 collection.
Can’t wait to see all the celebrities following the theme. Also impressive are Anna Wintour’s 2018 co-hosts: Amal Clooney, Rihanna, and Donatella Versace. Can’t wait!
Want to know more about fashion & art? See our article about the exhibition “Iris van Herpen – Transforming Fashion“.
