The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala is one of the most amazing events in the world of fashion, and Modelinia can’t wait to talk about it! Consider it the Olympics of Fashion, as the celebration will bring together the works of famous designers, photographers, and models from the 20th century in an exhibition sponsored by Marc Jacobs and Condé Nast. From May 6 to August 9, 2009, the second floor of Tisch Galleries in New York will be the home of the Met’s “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” exhibit, but the festivities kick off with a Gala Benefit on May 4. The evening will be hosted by honorary chair member Marc Jacobs, along with cochairs Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, and Justin Timberlake.

This Spring 2009 exhibition, put on by the Met’s Costume Institute, will display more than 70 original haute couture and ready-to-wear pieces from designers such as Balenciaga, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Prada. Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Costume Institute, says, “The exhibition will examine a timeline of fashion from 1947 to 1991 through the idealized aesthetic of the fashion model.” Iconic fashion models featured will include Naomi Campbell, Janice Dickinson, Linda Evangelista, Jerry Hall, Lauren Hutton, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, Twiggy, and Suzy Parker…just to name a few. If designers and models weren’t enough already, the works of world-renowned photographers will be on display as well, from Richard Avedon to Steven Meisel to Annie Leibovitz. When mixed together, supermodels, photographers, and fashion designers can, and did, define an era.

The exhibit gives viewers the chance to see how models from the past five decades were able to influence the collections of designers, and witness the evolution of beauty. Through the ’60s “Youthquake” gallery, inspired by the 1966 French film Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?, viewers will get to see the transition from the sophisticated Jean Shrimpton to the girly-girl look of Twiggy. The ’70s gallery will focus on Halston goddess dresses and Yves Saint Laurent’s bohemian-couture looks worn by Lisa Taylor and Jerry Hall. Count on seeing an ’80s-theme featuring the “Trinity” (Naomi, Linda, and Christy) and the idea that glamour crushed any barriers between runway, editorial, and advertisements. In the next gallery, viewers will flashback to the grunge era of the ’90s when Kate Moss brought rebel chic to the forefront of fashion, replacing the classic look.