About Time: Fashion and Duration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Timeline Dinner dress, Mrs. Arnold (American), ca. 1895; Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Sally Ingalls, 1932 (2009.300.643a, b). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope

Interruption Ensemble, Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969), fall/winter 2004–5; Gift of Comme des Garçons, 2020. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum

Gallery View, Clock Two Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gallery View, Clock One Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gallery View, 2020 Dress, Viktor & Rolf (Dutch, founded 1993), spring/summer 2020 haute couture; Courtesy Viktor + Rolf. Headpiece by Shay Ashual in collaboration with Yevgeny Koramblyum Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interruption Ball Gown, Charles James (American, born Great Britain, 1906– 1978), 1951; Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coulson, 1964 (2009.300.1311). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo ©

Timeline Dress, Cristóbal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895–1972), fall/winter 1958–59 haute couture; Gift of Rosamond Bernier, 1973 (1973.58.1a, b). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope

Interruption Dress, Nicolas Ghesquière (French, born 1971) for Louis Vuitton (French, founded 1854), spring/summer 2018; Courtesy Collection Louis Vuitton. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo ©

Timeline Dress, Iris Van Herpen (Dutch, born 1984), fall/winter 2012–13 haute couture; Gift of Iris Van Herpen, in honor of Harold Koda, 2016 (2016.185). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope

Dear Shaded Viewers,

This is the third post on the The Met’s current exhibition: About Time: Fashion and Duration which traces 150 years of fashion from 1870 to today. The philosopher Henri Bergson is the point of departure with his concept of la duree – the continuity of time. My dear friend Miguel Villalobos sent me drawings he did while at the opening of About Time yesterday. I also posted some of his stories on my IG (IG asvof) where you could hear the ‘ghost narrator’ Virginal Woolf. Louis Vuitton sponsored the exhibition with the help of Conde Nast.

“About Time: Fashion and Duration considers the ephemeral nature of fashion, employing flashbacks and fast-forwards to reveal how it can be both linear and cyclical,” said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. “The result is a show that presents a nuanced continuum of fashion over the Museum’s 150-year history.”

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, said: “Fashion is indelibly connected to time. It not only reflects and represents the spirit of the times, but it also changes and develops with the times, serving as an especially sensitive and accurate timepiece. Through a series of chronologies, the exhibition uses the concept of duration to analyze the temporal twists and turns of fashion history.”

The 2020 Costume Institute Benefit, also known as The Met Gala, originally scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2020, will not take place this year due to the global health crisis. The event serves as The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and capital improvements.