This past week, I fleeted from Long Island to Upper East Side, Manhattan to see the Manus X Machina exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This place is practically my second home so I know the only thing better than an exhibit at the Met-- is a fashionexhibit at the Met. The exhibit includes many different high fashion names such as Chanel, Givenchy, Balenciaga, Valentino, etc. I had already seen the House of Chanel dress plastered across all social media and made it my final destination for my day in the city.
I didn't even have to search for the gallery it was taking place in because you could literally see the sparkling and shimmering of the dress from a mile away. I could feel the glamorous and sophisticated aura that the room was giving off all the way in the Medieval Arts section. The contrast of the bright entrance to the exhibit versus the surrounding rooms is what really pulls you in at first. One second you feel like you're looking at the dress, the next second it feels like a sculpture-- but overall it was a beautiful installation. Each dress' display had a kaleidoscopic projection of the fabric in the background, which really gave you a closer look at the intricate details that you wouldn't have noticed before.
The reason why they called this work "Fashion in the Age of Technology" is because of all these new extraordinary ways to create clothing that you've never seen before-- or ones you would ever even think could be possible.
Take a look at this dress by Iris van Herpen made with a 3D printer:
One of the many things I enjoyed about this exhibit was the wide variety of style. Along side this dress were two more simple dresses made by the one and only Madame Grès. As you can see, these dresses aren't as complex as others, but the fabric is still exquisite and creates a very graceful movement from the skirt to the ground.
Here's a couple of dresses made by Hussein Chalayan. The dress on the left is made of molded white polyurethane, hand painted and airbrushed grey, green, blue, brown, black and red crushed automobile imagery. I mean really--how do people come up with this stuff?These three dresses also caught a lot of peoples attention. Every high end designer can go from quiet to loud real quick with their work. As you can see, Hussein Chalayan is a pro. The two dresses on the right are very fancy and futuristic while the one on the left is more plain, yet remarkable.
Just when you thought you've seen it all-- you arrive at the gift shop. This exciting, but at the same time disappointing, because there is no way in hell I would be able to afford anything I liked here. This Issey Miyake bag (sells for $925) was astounding. I. Need. It.Furthermore, I would come back to this exhibit again. And again. And again.