Robe à la Française • French • c. 1770 • Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rococo style embraced foreign styles with an inclusive, even rapacious eclecticism, but also with its own propensity to moderation and the small scale. During the period, Ikat, or warp-printed fabric, was modified to meet European taste. Saturated Eastern colors and bold geometrics became muted pastels in smaller floral and striped patterns characterizing many of the designs. – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Panniers or side hoops are women's undergarments worn in the 17th and 18th centuries to extend the width of the skirts at the side while leaving the front and back relatively flat. This provided a panel where woven patterns, elaborate decorations and rich embroidery could be displayed and fully appreciated. – Wikipedia

Jean Honoré Fragonard • The Swing • 1767 • The Wallace Collection, London

Alix by Madame Grès, circa 1936

"[My grandmother and Mrs. Vreeland] were very similar, and they both gave me unconditional love."

André Leon Talley and Diana Vreeland, his mentor, during her position at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. Pictured is the iconic dress worn by Marlene Dietrich in the 1932 film Shanghai Express.

Propaganda, Vivienne Westwood AW05

'Westwood said that this dress was her most important work to date. Comprising a beautifully constructed and boned bodice as its base, the gown has been draped, fitted, and spiraled around the body in one unbroken length.'

In the collection of The Costume Institute at The Met.

The Costume Institute Gala: "Schiaparelli And Prada: Impossible Conversations" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2012.

starting the morning by getting irrationally angry at a post criticising the met costume institute for having small exhibitions and keeping most of their collection in storage most of the time, like this big evil institution is "gatekeeping" or something. a quick blog check shows that OP claims to work for a museum and yet somehow they have no comprehension of the fact that all large, old museums (and certainly anything the size of the met) have vastly more objects in storage than they have the room to display, and in the case of museums with multiple departments, share floor space, making it literally (and i actually mean literally) prohibitive to display more than a fraction of the collection at any one time.

Photos​: #2&3 Gareth’s Instagram, #4 Farfarawaysite

Remember 2016’s Met Gala?

More is more & less is a bore.

—Iris Barrel Apfel, 29 August 1921 - 1 March 2024

Court Dress, ca. 1750, British, silk and metallic thread

Met Gala 2022 looks pt.3 📸

Henriette Favre (French, (dates unknown; worked at least from the 1890s to the 1910s) 

Evening gown • silk, sequins • 1902 • Metropolitan Museum of Art

Evening Dress • silk, cotton, celluloid • c. 1903 • Metropolitan Museum of Art

Right: Henritte Favre - Invoice from the Favre Fashion House, 5 Rue de la Paix, Paris, 1905

Left: Favre velvet dress • Silk, metal • 1905-07

Caroline Trentini in Danielle Frankel Met Gala | “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”

Bridesmaid Dress - A.F. Jammes (1896)

so my little prediction for the gala is that many people will be really thinking about karl as a person who they had a relationship or connection to in some way, and others will be thinking of favourite chanel pieces. not sure if there will be too many people attending who care or know about karl lagerfield’s reputation among the masses (or at least the parts of it I am connected to), but vogue has already been putting out little snippets with anna talking about her friend karl, so I think it’s going to be over all quite respectful to the man; who for all his cuntish ways and chanel’s horrific legacy, could certainly design a dress.

in terms of design I really don’t love everything he did, his ideas of beauty, desirability and romance don’t mesh with mine much at all. so his work thankfully isn’t as present in my psyche as others have been; but there were certainly moments.

it will be interesting to see how many designers and attendees have their finger on the zeitgeist and whether the event can continue to hold our attention. the fashion industry as a whole seems not to want to change as it must, despite the seismic shifts that have been happening since 2020 especially, but even going back to 2008ish and the rise of street fashion photography and the way that really made the elite fashion houses scramble to gain control of trends again

there was a very interesting post this morning from [at] kardashian_kolloquium on instagram talking about how the way the met gala is seen on a general level changed after anna wintour crawled into bed with the kardashian family and I have to agree.

whether it’s solely due to the kardashians, or whether that is a moment where vogue and anna decided to involve influencers in their publicity campaigns in general I don’t know

but it’s certainly true that how the met gala is seen by the public (many of whom don’t know much about the met museum’s costume institute, nor the way the event is actually run) has very much shifted over the past couple lot years. and the event, which used to be considered just one fundraiser event among many in new york alone has played to that audience to a point of ridiculousness. I don’t think that’s sustainable at all, especially with the way other red carpets have been getting very excessive lately as well, and I know that last year with the unfortunate and honestly callous choice of theme for the moment there were a lot less people excited about it compared to previous years. and this year there is karl who isn’t a lot of people’s favourite to say the least (esp when issey miyake and vivienne westwood also past since lagerfield did) and next year will probably be queen related, so we’ll see

anyway this is more words than I’ve ever put on here but just felt like jotting these thots down