The MET Examines Fashion In An Age Of Technology

 The MET Examines Fashion In An Age Of Technology

By:  Hope Wilkos, Writer

In less than one week, all eyes in the fashion world will be fixated on the MET located on Museum Row in New York City, overlooking Central Park.

We are racing into the future on the tail of technology and this year’s MET Costume Institute’s Spring 2016 Exhibition is labeled “Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology.” To introduce the exhibition, the famous MET GALA will be held on Monday, May 2, 2016 right there at the Museum. The most elite members of the fashion and celebrity world attend this event, walking the stairs as the beginning of the Red Carpet soiree. This traditional gala has seen the likes of Beyonce, Uma Thurman, Lady Gaga, Michael Kors, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bradley Cooper and more. Many of the attendees dress to match the theme, their designers taking creative to a whole new level. This year, the co-chairs of the evening event will be Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive, Taylor Swift and Anna Wintour. Honorary chairs are to be Nicolas Ghesquiere, Karl Lagerfeld and Miuccia Prada. Every May the MET GALA is held to raise funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and capital improvements. An intense amount of planning and preparation go into this one evening of the year and it is so significant to the fashion world that a film documentary was recently released and shown at Tribeca Film Festival 2016 about last year’s MET GALA and exhibition, ‘China Through The Looking Glass.’ The film is called ‘The First Monday in May’ and goes behind the scenes, tracing all that goes into the glamour of both the gala and the exhibition.

The MET GALA leads into the opening of the exhibition “Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology” which opens to the public on May 5th and remains on display through August 14, 2016. We will be transported back to the 1880’s as we see the fashions created by hand on the sewing machine. Then we leisurely travel through time as mass production of fashion begins and modern day haute couture is presented by timeless designers such as Chanel. Over 120 pieces will be on display in various parts of the Costume Institute for the public to admire. See the intricacy of embroidery, feather work, artificial flowers, pleating and innovative processes such as 3D printing and computer modeling.

“Fashion and technology are inextricably connected, more so now than ever before,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Met. “It is therefore timely to examine the roles that the handmade and the machine-made have played in the creative process. Often presented as oppositional, this exhibition proposes a new view in which the hand and the machine are mutual and equal protagonists.”

“Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made, but recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator in The Costume Institute. “manus x machina will challenge the conventions of the hand/machine dichotomy, and propose a new paradigm germane to our age of digital technology.”

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, said, “Both the automated and handcrafted process require similar amounts of thoughtfulness and expertise. There are instances where technology is optimized, but ultimately it’s the amount of care put into the craftsmanship, whether it’s machine-made or hand-made, that transforms ordinary materials into something extraordinary.”

The Robert Lehman Wing galleries on the Museum’s first floor and court level will present a series of pairings of handmade haute couture garments and their machine-made ready-to-wear counterparts. The galleries will be arranged enfilade, with a suite of rooms reflecting the traditional structure of a couture atelier and its constituent petites mains workshops for embroidery, feathers, pleating, knitting, lacework, leatherwork, braiding, and fringe work. These will be contrasted with ensembles incorporating new technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting, thermo shaping, computer modeling, circular knitting, ultrasonic welding, and bonding and laminating.

The Anna Wintour Costume Center galleries will present a series of “in process” workshops, including a 3D-printing workshop where visitors will witness the creation of 3D-printed garments during the course of the exhibition.

Designers in the exhibition will include Gilbert Adrian, Azzedine Alaïa, Christopher Bailey (Burberry), Cristobal Balenciaga, Boué Soeurs, Sarah Burton (Alexander McQueen), Pierre Cardin, Hussein Chalayan, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Giles Deacon, Christian Dior, Alber Elbaz (Lanvin), Mariano Fortuny, John Galliano (Christian Dior, Maison Margiela), Nicolas Ghesquière (Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton), Hubert de Givenchy, Madame Grès, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough for Proenza Schouler, Yoshiki Hishinuma, Marc Jacobs (Louis Vuitton), Charles James, Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), Helmut Lang, Mary McFadden, Issey Miyake, Miuccia Prada, Paul Poiret, Paco Rabanne, Noa Raviv, Yves Saint Laurent (Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent), Mila Schön, Raf Simons (Jil Sander, Christian Dior), Maiko Takeda, Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy), threeASFOUR, Philip Treacy, Iris van Herpen, Madeleine Vionnet, Alexander Wang, Junya Watanabe, and others.

We are truly looking forward to this year’s exhibition. Each year, the exhibition tends to amaze even more than the previous year. The exhibition is made possible by Apple with the support of Conde Nast.