{"id":49198,"date":"2020-11-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lovehappensmag.com\/blog\/?p=49198"},"modified":"2020-11-28T19:56:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T19:56:43","slug":"about-time-fashion-and-duration-costume-institute-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovehappensmag.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/24\/about-time-fashion-and-duration-costume-institute-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"About Time: Fashion and Duration, Costume Institute Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Unless you live close to New York, unfortunately, there is a good chance few of us will get to see The Costume Institute\u2019s exhibition About Time: Fashion and Duration<\/em> (on view now until February 7, 2021) in person, but if you can it is, of course, a must! And if you can’t the virtual guided tour below is a wonderful second-best option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Concept Behind About Time: Fashion and Duration<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In honor of The Met<\/a> museum’s 150th anniversary, About Time<\/em> traces 150 years of fashion, from 1870 to the present, along a disrupted timeline. The exhibition employs philosopher Henri Bergson\u2019s concept of la dur\u00e9e<\/em>\u2014the continuity of time\u2014through the exploration of how clothes generate temporal associations that converge past, present, and future. The concept is also examined through the writings of Virginia Woolf<\/a>, who serves as the exhibition\u2019s \u201cghost narrator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout Time: Fashion and Duration<\/em> considers the ephemeral nature of fashion, employing flashbacks and fast-forwards to reveal how it can be both linear and cyclical,\u201d said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. \u201cThe result is a show that presents a nuanced continuum of fashion over the Museum\u2019s 150-year history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, said: \u201cFashion 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the About Time<\/em> Exhibition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Presented in The Met Fifth Avenue\u2019s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, About Time: Fashion and Duration<\/em> features a timeline of 125 fashions dating from 1870\u2014the year of The Met\u2019s founding and the start of a decade that witnessed major developments in the global standardization of time\u2014to the present. The majority of objects on view are drawn from The Costume Institute\u2019s collection, including major gifts from designers as part of The Met\u2019s 2020 Collections Initiative, and related to the Museum\u2019s 150th-anniversary activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"about<\/a>
Gallery View, Clock Two (Image: \u00a9 The Metropolitan Museum of Art)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

60-Minutes of Fashion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The timeline unfolds in two adjacent galleries fabricated as enormous clock faces and organized around the principle of 60 minutes of fashion. Each \u201cminute\u201d features a pair of garments, with the primary work representing the linear nature of fashion and the secondary work its cyclical character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gallery<\/a>
Gallery View, Clock One (Image: \u00a9 The Metropolitan Museum of Art)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate Bergson\u2019s concept of duration\u2014of the past co-existing with the present\u2014the works in each pair are connected through shape, motif, material, pattern, technique, or decoration. For example, a black silk faille princess-line dress from the late 1870s pairs with an Alexander McQueen \u201cBumster\u201d skirt from 1995. A black silk satin dress with enormous leg-o\u2019-mutton sleeves from the mid-1890s juxtaposes a Comme des Gar\u00e7ons deconstructed ensemble from 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n