The MET Gala is the kick off for the latest Costume Institute Exhibition.

The 2024 display, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion is an immersive show with sensory experiences including video animations, soundscapes and smells.

The exhibition features approximately 220 garments and accessories spanning four centuries, all visually connected through themes of nature, which also serves as a metaphor for the transience of fashion.

You are invited to smell the aromatic histories of hats bearing floral motifs (overrated and underwhelming), and to touch the walls of galleries that are embossed with the embroidery of select garments.

Punctuating the galleries are a series of “Sleeping Beauties”, garments that can no longer be dressed on mannequins due to their extreme fragility.

The galleries unfold as a series of case studies united
by the theme of nature. Motifs such as flowers and
foliage, birds and insects, and fish and shells are
organized into three groupings: earth, air, and water,
respectively. In many ways, nature serves as the
ultimate metaphor for fashion.

Take the tour:

It is a clever interactive exhibit. Beyond Alexander McQueen (the razor clam dress is phenomenal ) and a few scattered, Diors I was not blown away.

That being said, it is worth a visit.

Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1Fifth Avenue Second Floor New York City. Exhibition Dates: May 10–September 2, 2024.