Top model, today’s muse

Published: 2009 - April/May, Cultural and Artistic Paths

A meeting point between contemporary artistic tendencies and the world of high fashion, the ability of analysis and the synthesis of the curators of the “Costume Institute” at the Metropolitan mark the great exhibition that the institute proposes for Spring-Summer 2009, entitled “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion”. From the 6 May until August the reciprocal relationship between fashion and the evolution of the ideal beauty will be explored. An understanding of the role of the model, the past and outgoing icons of the 20th century, inspired by the aesthetic canons of its time.
“The exhibition will explore the evolution of fashion in the last 100 years, through the images of the photographic model”, explains Harold Koda, curator of the Costume Institute. “We will highlight the power of the clothes, of fashion photography and the models to influence the look of an era. With a simple gesture, or through the outline of her own body, a proper top model is able to summarize the essence of the era, creating seductive synergies between herself and the clothes, to communicate the designer’s message to the whole world”. But it wasn’t always like this: before the Second World War there were very few models – amongst these Marion Morehouse – known to the public by name. It was only after the Second World War that the great fashion houses began to search for models able to represent their own identities and in the most important centers of international fashion there began an increase of fashion agencies that took on the work of scouting, acting as beauty intermediaries.
Here therefore were Lisa Fonssagrives, Dovina, Suzy Parker, Sunny Hartnett and Dorian Leigh, who embodied the style of the 40’s and 50’s, when a key role was played by fashion houses such as Dior and Calvin Klein. A new generation of eccentric young designers, Belgian, Japanese and English, instead put their trust in emerging supermodels such as Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann and Shalom Harlow. The original models, who by now had become just Models, were able to cross the boundaries of the arts; just remember the case of the superb Veruschka, of whom Michelangelo Antonioni entrusted a small but significant part in “Blow Up”. The path had been laid: at the end of the last century the top models Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss or Gisele Bundchen could become a type of global superstar, thanks to an untold capacity for self promotional work through all forms of imagery and communication.
An epic recreated by the Costume Institute, in the spaces of the Tisch Gallery, thanks to the pictures of great photographers such as Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Horst, George William Klein, Paolo Roversi and Bruce Weber.

The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion
For more information: +1 (212) 535-7710
www.metmuseum.org