The British designer created immersive scenography for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s 2020 show, About Time: Fashion and Duration.
The first Monday in May is an official holiday for fashion fans everywhere, who typically spend the day following coverage of the famed Met Gala. Cancelled this year, the event takes place kick off the opening of annual exhibitions held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, and was highly anticipated in 2020 for the Met’s 150 anniversary. But now those who have experienced the postponed show by poring over the virtual previews are finally able to visit it in person. The NYC institution’s team collaborated with British set designer Es Devlin to develop the scenography for About Time: Fashion and Duration, creating an immersive environment expressing fashion’s parallels through history. Two adjacent galleries, one clad in black and the other in mirrors, were transformed into clock faces following a concept entitled ’60 Minutes of Fashion’.
On display are 125 fashions dating from the 1870s to today which are grouped by white lines and lights signifying a clock’s reference marks. Each ‘minute’ hosts two garments from contrasting eras, installed side by side to highlight continuities in design. About Time includes creations from the likes of contemporary leaders Virgil Abloh, Iris van Herpen and Viktor & Rolf to icons such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel and Hubert de Givenchy. Devlin’s work is inspired by the philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of la durée and the writings of Virginia Woolf. The space enables visitors to form their own conceptions of fashion through time as they journey between the galleries. ‘It’s always important to me that an audience enjoys the exhibition, and [that] it’s an experience for them,’ Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge at the Met’s Costume Institute told Vogue. ‘We do try to offer these multisensory immersive experiences where the installation in a way reinforces the narratives of the exhibition that we’re trying to convey.’
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About Time: Fashion and Duration will be on show until 7 February 2021.