The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has announced its Fall 2023 exhibition, on display from December 7, 2023 to March 3, 2024. As the Institute’s website states, Women Dressing Women will celebrate the creativity and artistic legacy of women designers whose fashions are represented in the Museum’s permanent collection.
Women Dressing Women will explore the work of both widely celebrated and lesser-known women designers and women-led fashion houses from the 20th century to the present, surfacing a series of intergenerational conversations that underscore ideas related to women’s social progress as charted through fashion. The exhibition will uncover new information about understudied designers and houses that were influential during their activity, expanding upon the canon of Western fashion by highlighting rare works from The Costume Institute’s collection, some of which will be on view at The Met for the first time.
Comprising approximately 80 objects that document the work of more than 70 makers, the exhibition will trace a lineage of influential women-led fashion houses from the 20th century to the present, highlighting the pioneering designers who led them. Designers whose work will be on view include Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, Adèle Henriette Nigrin Fortuny, Gabriela Hearst, Ann Lowe, Claire McCardell, Pia Davis and Autumn Randolph for No Sesso, Miuccia Prada, Madeleine Vionnet, and Vivienne Westwood, among many others.
Through the exploration of four key notions—anonymity, visibility, agency, and absence/omission—Women Dressing Women will offer a new interpretation of the traditional canon of fashion history and examine the ways in which the industry has served as a powerful vehicle for women’s social, financial, and creative autonomy. Discoveries about the identities, mentorship histories, and connections between women makers throughout history will be explored, providing new insights and an enhanced understanding of their work.
“Our fall exhibition will provide an opportunity to engage with the critical histories of innovative women designers, all of whom played pivotal roles in the conception of fashion as we know it today,” said Mellissa Huber, associate curator, The Costume Institute, in a statement.
“In recognizing that the contributions of women to fashion are unquantifiable, our intention with this show is to celebrate and acknowledge through a focus on The Costume Institute’s permanent collection, which represents a rich timeline of Western fashion history. We hope that this exhibition will foster impactful conversations between our visitors and across the designers’ larger bodies of work, highlighting the plurality and diversity of women’’ important contributions to the field.”
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