Costume Institute Curator Teases Exhibit

How does historical fashion compete with the likes of Zendaya and Jennifer Lopez on the biggest night on the New York calendar? This is Andrew Bolton’s superpower.

Bolton, 57, who has been in charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 2016, excels at producing layered, eye-catching fashion exhibitions, while also answering the question — “Is fashion art?” – A resounding yes.

Zendaya and Lopez, along with fellow hosts Chris Hemsworth, Bad Bunny and Condé Nast, chief content officer and Vogue magazine Global Editorial Director Anna Wintour will join throngs of Hollywood elite echoing the concept of fashion as art when they gather May 6 for the museum’s annual exhibition. Met Gala. Tonight will include a preview of Bolton’s new show, Sleeping Beauty: Awakening Fashion, which will open on May 10. The 250-piece exhibition, curated from among the 33,000 pieces in the institute’s collection, explores notions of femininity and fragility, all woven into a thread of nature. (The dress code for this year’s Met Gala, “The Garden of Time,” is tangentially related to the exhibition’s theme and inspired by J. J. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name, while Wintour also reached out via Vogue magazine That guests should reflect the element of “fleeting beauty” in their clothing.)

Bolton says THR One experimental aspect of the idea arose after witnessing a young girl being told not to touch pieces at the institute’s 2023 exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: a line of beauty. “I thought I wanted to do a show that revolved around ideas of museum etiquette, but of course in a completely respectful way,” Bolton says. A prime example of this is a 17th-century British embroidered women’s bra, displayed under glass for protection, while the shape of a leafy strawberry is replicated as a decorative background that attendees can touch without fear of being warned by security guards.

Multiply Bolton’s desire to focus on pieces from the museum’s permanent collection, and the race was on to put together a show that, as its name suggests, would not only reawaken historical clothing from its deep slumber in the archives, but might reawaken viewers’ sensibilities as well.

Fourteen of the objects on display are veritable “Sleeping Beauties,” items so fragile they can only be displayed flat in glass cases that Bolton called “coffins.” “It’s a different way to appreciate the transience of fashion,” he says. “Many of them are pieces that we would never normally show…but even that transience needs to be seen and appreciated.”

says Wintour THR “Andrew’s great gift is not only his ability to engage us in fascinating stories through his exhibitions, but he has this extraordinary way of giving fashion history contemporary relevance. He will often mention an idea, an idea, or an intuition about a show’s curatorial approach, only for me to then see it emerge.” In culture, his way of looking at the past is always with one eye to the future.

In this show, engaging all the senses is a priority for Bolton. For sound, Bolton thought of the rustle of silk, a highly prized element in 18th-century dresses—the louder the rustle, the better the silk—which was represented by a French gown from around 1740. “Silk has a special sound, which is a combination of a scratching and a squealing sound known as a ‘scroop,’ and we did a lot of research to mimic that sound,” Bolton points out. Visitors will experience this and other clothing sounds created in an anechoic chamber, a chamber designed to produce recordings in their purest form.

To enhance viewers’ visual sense, Bolton’s team worked with CGI artists to recreate the interior construction of some of the dresses, projecting those images throughout the space. Visitors will also enjoy experiencing floral scents in a section dedicated to hats bearing floral motifs by designers including Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Elsa Schiaparelli.

Hollywood will also have multiple references, including a pair of pieces from two eras of Alexander McQueen: a 1995 jacket created by the late designer in homage to the Alfred Hitchcock film. the birdsand a 2011 butterfly-embellished dress designed by Sarah Burton for the brand, which Elizabeth Banks famously wore as Effie Trinket in 2012. hunger Games.

Bolton embodies the idea of ​​the modern Renaissance man in many ways, not the least of which is his ability to seamlessly blend the exquisite beauty of historical fashion with intellectual layers that transcend art into deeper conversations. However, when discussing the use of computer-generated imagery and AI technology, including a finale that will include an as-yet-unrevealed AI moment, it’s clear that Bolton always trusts his instincts. “I’m not a big fan of technology when it’s free,” he adds. “I am in favor of combining technology to improve the material.”

He also trusts his old partner, designer and Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Thom Browne. How do these two undisputed fashion power couple influence each other? “Maybe it’s on a more subconscious level,” Bolton allows. “We often talk about work, although a lot of times it doesn’t tend to be specific. Instead, it’s a little more abstract, a little more felt. We’re both quite instinctive in terms of how we work.

Bolton’s show includes a piece by Brown, part of a six-appearance painting on the sub-theme of sirens. “The original is a piece by Norman Norell, and it is surrounded by interpretations by Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Joseph Altuzarra and others, including Tom, who did a piece inspired by the mermaid idea,” Bolton says. “It’s all gold, and it exists in an extraordinary, magical space.” “.

When it is mentioned that all six of these designs were made by men, perhaps drawn by classic images of mermaids, Bolton agrees and adds with a laugh: “That’s how mythology works, isn’t it?”

A version of this story first appeared in the April 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.