Dinner dress, ca. 1895  (The metropolitan Museum of Art)

“Virginia” by Beatrice Brandini

About time: Fashion and Duration is a magnificent exhibition at the Met that traces a century and a half of fashion, suffering from 1870 and reaching the present day.

Timeline: Afternoon dress, ca.1877 – Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 1995-96

Timeline: Walking dress, ca. 1885 – Yohji Yamamoto, Fall/Winter 1986-87

This exhibition recounts the most significant stages in fashion over the last 150 years, highlighting radical changes and styles that have cyclically returned despite the passage of time.

Timeline: Dinner dress ca. 1895 – Comme des Garçon Fall/Winter 2004-05

Timeline: Morin Blossier, reding jacket 1902 (archivio Metropolitan Museum of Art) – Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton P/E 2018

The curator of the exhibition, Andrew Bolton, conceived it as a reflection on the value of time in fashion, in contrast with what it has always represented (but above all today), that is, an ephemeral and consumerist artistic manifestation.

“I thought that pulling out the tensions between change and resistance, transience, permanence and persistence, could be a nice way to create more awareness of the fashion that goes on” Bolton said.

Timeline: Evening dress, ca.1928 – John Galliano, Spring/Summer 1997

Timeline: Elsa Schiaparelli Evening jacket, winter 1938-39 – Yves Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 1978-79

Bolton created an exhibition as if it were a watch “a 60-minute fashion study” with 60 pieces arranged in rigorous chronology, each of which was interrupted by a piece made more recently, but which explores the same silhouette, technique or vision .

A wonderful journey into fashion, very “dark” (almost all the creations are black), to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Met museum in New York.

Timeline: Christina Dior, “Bar” Spring/Summer 1947 – Junya Watanabe Fall/Winter 2011-2012

Timeline Cristóbal Balenciaga Dress,  Fall/Winter 1958-59 – Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton S/S 2018

Virginia Woolf is the ghost narrator of the exhibition, accompanying the visitor on a journey in which the protagonists are magnificent timeless dresses.

Timeline: Rudi Gernreich dress, Fall/Winter 1968-69 – Azzedine Alaïa dress, S/S 2003

Charles James “Tulip” Evening dress, 1949 – Timeline: Jean Paul Gaultier Fall/Winter 1984-85

“Fashion is indelibly linked to time. Not only does it reflect and represent the spirit of the times, but it changes and develops with the times, serving as a particularly sensitive and precise timepiece ”. Andrew Bolton.

“Delphos” Dress Mariano Fortuny, 1930 – Timeline: Issey Miyake “Flying Saucer”, S/S 1994

Timeline: Viktor & Rolf, Spring/Summer 2005 – Madeleine Vionnet Evening dress, 1939

The creations are placed in two adjacent galleries made like huge clock faces and organized on the principle of 60 minutes. Each minute will feature a pair of garments. The first is “the original”, the second “the inspiration”, like a secondary work that recurs cyclically. Some of these are literal quotes, such as the 1978 Yves Saint Laurent dress flanked by the 1938 Elsa Schiaparelli suit. Other similar visions, such as the 1870 black silk princess gown, placed before an Alexander McQueen skirt from the 1995.

Timeline: Iris Van Herpen, F/W 2012-13 – Charles James Ball Gown, 1951

“Vittoria” di Beatrice Brandini

An important exhibition for the presence of historical and iconic pieces, but also to reflect the link between fashion and temporality.

“It is a difficult business – this time-keeping; nothing more quickly disorders it than contact with any of the arts.”  Virginia Woolf

Buona vita a tutti !

Beatrice