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Photos: Heavenly Bodies, The Met's Fashion + Catholicism Exhibit, Opens
By
Jen Chung
Published May 10, 2018
Modified May 10, 2018
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 10, 2018
Modified May 10, 2018
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Now that the Met Gala is out of the way, the real show starts: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. That's the theme for this year's the Metropolitan Museum of Art's big fashion exhibit for 2018, which opened today and features "40 ecclesiastical masterworks from the Sistine Chapel sacristy" and 150 ensembles from the 1900s to present.
The sprawling exhibition takes over a number of Met's spaces: Designer ensembles are situated amongst the Met's vast medieval collection as well as in the Byzantine galleries, where dramatic music plays to get you in a period mood. For those who want to venture further north, you can also see some of the pieces at The Cloisters.
(Sai Mokhtari / Gothamist)
"The presentation situates these designs within the broader context of religious artistic production to analyze their connection to the historiography of material Christianity and their contribution to the construction of the Catholic imagination," the museum explains.
In the Anna Wintour Costume Center, many of the items on display are from past Popes, which are restrained in their own richness.
A Valentino dress (Sai Mokhtari / Gothamist)
"Fashion and religion have long been intertwined, mutually inspiring and informing one another," said Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute's curator, said in a statement. "Although this relationship has been complex and sometimes contested, it has produced some of the most inventive and innovative creations in the history of fashion."
Heavenly Bodies runs from May 10 until October 8, 2018, at the Met Fifth Avenue and Met Cloisters.
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cloisters
fashion
heavenly bodies
metropolitan museum of art
vatican
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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