Met Gala 2020 Theme Unveiled: “About Time: Fashion and Duration"
Opening on May 7.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has officially unveiled the Costume Institute’s spring 2020 exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” which will chronicle fashion from 1870 to the present in conjunction with The Met’s 150th anniversary. Set to open to the public on May 7 — a few days after the annual star-studded gala on May 4 — the exhibition will see deceased writer Virginia Woolf serve as a “ghost narrator” and will utilize French philosopher Henri Bergson’s “la durée” (duration) theory to “explore how clothes generate temporal associations that conflate past, present, and future.”
The installation will include a series of all-black attire in order to illustrate how the idea of modernity has evolved throughout the years. Conversely, there will also be a string of white garments that are meant to reflect “counter-chronologies,” while also depicting the similar characteristics between styles as it pertains to shape, fabrication, pattern and technique. Avant-garde and contemporary pieces from designers such as Alexander McQueen and Comme des Garçons, for example, will be paired alongside 19th-century items like princess-line gowns and bustle dresses. Everything will then culminate with a segment on the “future of fashion,” which will incorporate a focus on sustainability.
“About Time: Fashion and Duration” will be on view from May 7 to September 7, 2020. Co-chairs for the Met Gala include Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Anna Wintour.
As the industry awaits more details on the exhibition opening, catch up on the best dressed celebrities at the 2019 Met Gala, featuring wild looks from Travis Scott, Jared Leto, Cardi B and more.
