On May 5, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open its new Costume Institute exhibition, “Manus x Machina,” curated by Andrew Bolton. Exploring the relationship between the handmade and the machine-produced in fashion, the show will feature more than 100 haute couture and ready-to-wear pieces, ranging from a Charles Frederick Worth gown from the 1880s to an Yves Saint Laurent cocktail dress from 1969–70 to a Fall 2015 Haute Couture suit by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. The goal? To show how the lines between the high-tech and the artisanal are blurring in fashion as we move further into the 21st century. “Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made, but recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other,” said Bolton, curator in charge of the Costume Institute. “‘Manus x Machina’ will challenge the conventions of the hand/machine dichotomy and propose a new paradigm germane to our age of technology.”
The exhibition will take place in the museum’s circular Robert Lehman Wing galleries and the Anna Wintour Costume Center—the former housing case studies in techniques such as embroidery, lacework, and laser cutting, while the latter showcasing a couture atelier installation, where the inner workings of the intricate garments will be on display. Fans who can’t wait until the opening to see the innovative designs by Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Lagerfeld, Raf Simons for Dior, Christopher Kane, Iris van Herpen, and Nicolas Ghesquière can get a taste of what’s in store here with a first look at the imagery from the show’s catalog.
Alongside photographs by Nicolas Alan Cope, the book also includes interviews with Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton, Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, Louis Vuitton’s Ghesquière, Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Kane, Van Herpen, Hussein Chalayan, and Gareth Pugh in its 256 pages and will be available at the museum in May.
The post A First Look at the Met’s “Manus x Machina” Costume Institute Exhibition appeared first on Vogue.