MET GALA BENEFIT GREETS PUNK FASHION

MET GALA BENEFIT GREETS PUNK FASHION

By: Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger

Photographer: George Whylie

Videographer: Maxine Nolan

Anybody and everybody that is a fan of fashion knows that there is one evening of the year that attracts the fashion elite in a magical setting.

The highly anticipated Met Costume Institute Gala Benefit will take place on May 6, 2013. Co-Chairs for the exclusive event are Rooney Mara, Lauren Santo Domingo, Riccardo Tisci and a woman who represents the epitome of fashion, Anna Wintour. Givenchy will be providing additional funding for the benefit. The funds raised from this most exceptional gala provide the main source of annual funding for exhibitions, acquisitions and capital improvement.

The event will usher in the newest exhibit with fashion at the heart of the matter. ‘PUNK: Chaos to Couture’ is organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit will be on display from May 9 through August 14, 2013 and will examine the impact that punk has had on high fashion from its birth in the 1970’s and continuing its influence all the way to present-day fashion. The exhibition will be located at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall.

John Lydon, 1976

Photograph by Ray Stevenson/Rex USA

Junya Watanabe (Japanese, born 1961), fall/winter 2006–7
Photograph by Catwalking

The exhibition goes even further to solidify how much of a bond that art and fashion share in common drawing an audience fueled with a sense of inquisitive wonder.

“Since its origins, punk has had an incendiary influence on fashion,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator in The Costume Institute. “Although punk’s democracy stands in opposition to fashion’s autocracy, designers continue to appropriate punk’s aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive forcefulness.”

Paul Cook, late 1970s
Photograph © Dennis Morris – all rights reserved

Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969), spring/summer 2006
Photograph by Catwalking

The exhibition will be rich with culture as viewers get to witness 100 different designs for both men and women. We will see the way punk has influenced haute couture and ready-to-wear with its visual symbols. Paillettes are replaced with safety pins, feathers with razor blades and bugle beads with studs. Focusing on the relationship between the punk concept of ‘do-it-yourself’ and the couture concept of ‘made-to-measure,’ the exhibition will be organized around the materials, techniques, and embellishments associated with the anti-establishment style. Presented as an immersive multimedia, multisensory experience, the clothes will be animated with period music videos and soundscaping audio techniques.

Sid Vicious, 1977
Photograph © Dennis Morris – all rights reserved

Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938) for House of Chanel (French, founded 1913)
Vogue, March 2011
Photograph by David Sims / art partner

There are always designers behind the inspiration of finished works of art. One of the galleries looks at Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood and their Seditionaries boutique at 430 King’s Road in London. They had a distinct talent of merging social realism with artistic expression.

Designers in the exhibition will include Miguel Adrover, Thom Browne, Burberry, Hussein Chalayan, Christophe Decarnin (Balmain), Ann Demeulemeester, Dior, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana (Dolce and Gabbana), John Galliano, Nicolas Ghesquière (Balenciaga), Katherine Hamnett, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (Viktor & Rolf), Christopher Kane, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), Helmut Lang, Martin Margiela, Malcolm McLaren, Alexander McQueen, Moschino, Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte), Miuccia Prada, Gareth Pugh, Zandra Rhodes, Hedi Slimane (Saint Laurent), Stephen Sprouse, Jun Takahashi (Undercover), Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy), Gianni Versace, Junya Watanabe, Yohji Yamamoto, and Vivienne Westwood.

Patti Smith, late 1970s
Photograph by Caroline Coon, Camera Press

Ann Demeulemeester (Belgian, born 1959), spring/summer 2000
Photograph by Catwalking

The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator, in the Met’s Costume Institute. Photographer Nick Knight is the exhibition’s creative consultant working with exhibition design consultant Sam Gainsbury (who was creative director for the Met’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition in 2011) and production designer Gideon Ponte (a set and production designer for photo shoots and feature films including Buffalo 66 and American Psycho). All mannequin head treatments and masks will be designed by Guido Palau, who also created treatments for ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ and last year’s ‘Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.’

The design for the 2013 Costume Institute gala benefit will be created by Nick Knight, Sam Gainsbury, and Gideon Ponte with Raul Avila, who has produced the benefit décor since 2007.

John Lydon, 1976
Photograph by Ray Stevenson/Rex USA

For those that fall in love with fashion or those that are unable to pay the Museum a visit, you will still be able to enjoy in another special way. A book, ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’, by Andrew Bolton, with an introduction by Jon Savage, and prefaces by Richard Hell and John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), will accompany the exhibition. This publication will be illustrated with photographs of vintage punks and high fashion. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the $45 catalogue (hard cover only) will be distributed worldwide by Yale University Press.

The Museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org/punk will feature the exhibition. You can also follow them on Facebook.com/MetMuseum and Twitter.com/MetMuseum to join the conversation about the gala benefit. Use #PunkFashion and #Met Gala on Twitter.

Jordan, 1977
Photograph from Rex USA

Rodarte (American, founded 2005)
Vogue, July 2008
Photograph by David Sims

In addition to this exhibition, The Metropolitan Museum has many more exhibitions that will satisfy everybody’s tastes. It is always worth a visit to one of the greatest museums in the world.