The New York Met takes a feminist look at global fashion

The Metropolitan Museum in New York has pulled back the curtain on its latest blockbuster exhibition, showcasing female couturiers, many of whom have remained in the shadows of obscurity until now.

One of the centerpieces of the 'Women Dressing Women' exhibition is a dress by pioneering African-American designer Ann Lowe, who was largely ignored in her time, even though she designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress in 1953.

The muslin dress has exquisite details and features silk roses and intricate taffeta.

Three decades before Jackie O appeared in Lowe's masterpiece, the forgotten French fashion house Premet released a dress designed by Madam Charlotte called “La garconne.”

“This 'little black dress' predates Chanel's successful version of the garment by three years,” said Mellissa Huber, associate curator at the Met's Costume Institute.

Through 80 pieces by 70 creators, the exhibition also analyzes the art of women's fashion from the 20th century to the present day, as well as the environmental defense of designers such as Gabriela Hearst and Hillary Taymour.

“The most important thing is to really celebrate and demonstrate the incredible range and diversity of women designers who have been around throughout history and who have made so many significant contributions to fashion,” Huber said.

“We aim to dispel stereotypes that women are more practical than men, or that they all design with themselves in mind.”

For women, the story begins in the anonymity of the sewing workshops to which they were often relegated.

But several French designers made their mark in the early 20th century, including Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Lanvin and Gabrielle Chanel.

Carefully selecting costumes designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, Nina Ricci and Vivienne Westwood, the Costume Institute delved into its collection of 33,000 pieces representing seven centuries of clothing.

The exhibition, originally scheduled for 2020 to celebrate a century of women's suffrage in the United States but delayed by the pandemic, ends on a more political note, examining absences and omissions in museum collections.

Even as the exhibition begins, preparations are also in full swing for the 2024 Met Gala and Exhibition, the fashion world's party of the year, and the theme will be “Sleeping Beauties: The Awakening of Fashion.”

The Met Gala, which brings together an A-list of celebrities, will be held in Manhattan on May 6 to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, which the public can view from May 10 to September 2. Both are co-sponsored by the popular video-sharing app TikTok.

The expansive, immersive exhibition will feature around 250 garments and accessories spanning four centuries, sourced from the Costume Institute's vast 33,000-piece archives, from a 17th-century embroidered jacket to a spring-summer 2001 Alexander McQueen dress made of shells.

The Met Gala is the Costume Institute's primary source of funding. Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour took over the charity gala in the 1990s and transformed it into one of the liveliest parties in the world.