The Met Gala, “Fashion’s Biggest Night,” was held Monday in New York City. We’ll leave the Beyoncé adulation and rumors about who was making out with who to the lesser publications. The good thing about covering a narrow field of interest is that we can zero in on the appearance of vase-inspired eveningwear.
Oh yeah, we guess Rihanna wore a cape that the Internet has been making fun of. There’s that, too.
Anyway.
The gala preceded an exhibition organized by the Costume Institute along with the Met’s Department of Asian Art. China: Through the Looking Glass (May 7 – Aug. 16, 2015) studies the influence of Chinese culture on Western fashion sense. High fashion will be set against Chinese costumes, paintings and porcelain works to show how the different threads intersect with each other. The Met states:
From the earliest period of European contact with China in the sixteenth century, the West has been enchanted with enigmatic objects and imagery from the East, providing inspiration for fashion designers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent, whose fashions are infused at every turn with romance, nostalgia, and make-believe. Through the looking glass of fashion, designers conjoin disparate stylistic references into a pastiche of Chinese aesthetic and cultural traditions.
The exhibition will feature more than one hundred examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear alongside Chinese art. Filmic representations of China will be incorporated throughout to reveal how our visions of China are framed by narratives that draw upon popular culture, and also to recognize the importance of cinema as a medium through which to understand the richness of Chinese history.
Among the jaw-dropping things that are sure to provoke comparisons to The Capitol City from the Hunger Games was a vase at the Gala’s entrance. The 12,500 pound chinoiserie vase was made entirely of flowers. A time-lapse construction video of the vase is embedded here.
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Roberto Cavalli, Evening dress, fall/winter 2005-6. Photograph by Platon.
Exhibition images for China: Through the Looking Glass at the Met Museum, New York City.
Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting post. Best regards from Spain, Maria
Thank you Garth,
I love blue and white
Lucy