If you haven’t already visited the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibition at the Costume Institute, now might be a good time. Soon, a new piece will join the 200-plus garment exhibition (on display until September 2, 2024), and it’s a special one. Anna Wintour’s custom 2024 Met Gala look designed by Jonathan Anderson for Loewe will be installed next to the that inspired it.
“It was a privilege to work on this look for Anna for the and to find the synergies between what we are doing presently at Loewe and the incredible craft of the sleeping beauties in the Costume Institute archives,” said Anderson. “It’s an honor to have one of my designs now live alongside Charles Frederick Worth’s cape in his Tulipes Hollandaises textile that inspired the piece.” One of the major through lines of the exhibition is the reinterpretation of historical garments from the archives.
Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Costume Institute, explained the importance of the modern-day pieces living alongside the historical ones. “‘Sleeping Beauties’ endeavors to reawaken garments in the Costume Institute’s collection by reactivating their sensory qualities,” Bolton said. “The show unfolds as a series of case studies united by the theme of nature.
Like fashion, nature depends on the widest sensory engagements for its fullest sensorial expressions. The comparison, however, does not end with the senses. In many ways, nature serves as the ultimate metaphor.
