Heavenly Bodies at the Met

Heavenly Bodies at the Met

Heavenly Bodies at the Met was a pleasant surprise. I love going to the Fashion Shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC but I was not sure a fashion show with a religious influence would excite me. Wrong I thinkHeavenly Bodies is the best fashion show I have seen at the Met. It is the largest fashion exhibition they have had. Part of the show begins downstairs with beautiful religious vestments and objects encrusted in gold and semi-precious stones that blew me away.

I wondered where the fashions were and was told to head for the Byzantine and medieval galleries and into the Lehman Wing on the main floor behind the staircase. Mixed in with the art the fashions are very dramatic and exciting. Pleasant pulsating music accompanied the exhibition while viewing the designs. Most of the designers were influenced by Catholicism in some way. Designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Lacroix and Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri have fashions on display.

The exhibition was organized by Andrew Bolton, Head Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It continues at the Cloisters. The trip to the Cloisters on the Hudson river was another treat. Originally built to house the religious art collection of the Rockefeller’s. Again the fashions were among the art on display.

The crowds were large at both venues but the generous spaces in the Museum on 5th Avenue and at the Cloisters made for comfortable viewing. Fashion is not dead if visitors to this fashion exhibition is any indication. It is a must see if in NYC.