Death Becomes Her–The Metropolitan Museum of Art has indicated in a press release that their fall exhibition will focus on funeral attire from the 19th and 20th centuries called “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire”. It’s been seven long years since the Met featured a fall presentation at its newly named Anna Wintour Costume Center, formerly the Costume Institute, with the last presentation being blog.mode: addressing fashion in 2007.
See looks from the 2014 Met Gala.
Curator in charge, Harold Koda says, “The predominantly black palette of mourning dramatizes the evolution of period silhouettes and the increasing absorption of fashion ideals into this most codified of etiquettes. The veiled widow could elicit sympathy as well as predatory male advances. As a woman of sexual experience without marital constraints, she was often imagined as a potential threat to the social order.”
Although the exhibition examines somewhat of a somber theme, attendees can expect to observe and learn about the history of mourning attire and view the attire worn by the likes of Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra. The exhibition is set to be on view from October 21, 2014-Febrary 1, 2015 at the Anna Wintour Costume Center.
