Bonaveri Magazine

Schiaparelli, who worked in Paris from the
1920s until her house closed in 1954, was
closely associated with the Surrealist movement
and created such iconic pieces as the “Tear”
dress, the “Shoe” hat, and the “Bug” necklace.
Prada, who holds a degree in political science,
took over her family’s Milan-based business in
1978, and focuses on fashion that reflects the
eclectic nature of Postmodernism.
Punk: Chaos to couture
The Met’s spring 2013 Costume Institute
exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, examined
punk’s impact on high fashion from the
movement’s birth in the early 1970s through its
continuing influence. Featuring approximately
one hundred designs for men and women, the
exhibition included original
The exhibition
included original
punk garments,
garments and
recent, directional
fashion
punk garments and recent, directional fashion,
to illustrate how haute couture and ready-towear
borrow punk’s visual symbols.
Focusing on the relationship between the punk
concept of “do-it-yourself” and the couture
concept of “made-to-measure,” the seven
galleries were organized around the materials,
techniques, and embellishments associated
with the anti-establishment style. Themes
include New York and London, which tells punk’s
origin story as a tale of two cities, followed by
Clothes for Heroes and four manifestations
of the D.I.Y. aesthetic—Hardware, Bricolage,
Graffiti and Agitprop, and Destroy.
Presented as an immersive multimedia, multisensory
experience, the clothes were animated with period
music videos and soundscaping audio techniques.
China - Through the looking glass
An exhibition that explored the impact of Chinese
aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has
fuelled the fashionable imagination for centuries.
In this collaboration between The Costume Institute
and the Department of Asian Art, high fashion was
juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings,
porcelains, and other art, including films, to reveal
enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery.
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, presented in 2015, featured more than
140 examples of haute couture and avant-garde readyto-wear
alongside Chinese art. Filmic representations
of China were 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.
CAMP: notes on Fashion
The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition,
Camp: Notes on Fashion (on view from May 9
through September 8, 2019, and preceded
on May 6 by The Costume Institute Benefit),
explored the origins of camp’s
Approximately
200 objects, as
well as sculptures,
paintings, and
drawings dating
from the 17th
century to the
present were
featured.
exuberant aesthetic and how the sensibility
evolved from a place of marginality to become
an important influence on mainstream culture.
Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’”
provided the framework for the exhibition,
which examined how fashion designers have
used their métier as a vehicle to engage with
camp in a myriad of compelling, humorous, and
sometimes incongruous ways.
The exhibition featured approximately 200
objects, including womenswear and menswear,
as well as sculptures, paintings, and drawings
dating from the 17th century to the present. In
her essay, Sontag defined camp as an aesthetic
and outlined its primary characteristics. The
largest section of the exhibition was devoted
to how these elements - which include irony,
humour, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality,
and exaggeration - are expressed in fashion.
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