The Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute is at it again. “In Pursuit of Fashion” presents more than 80 outstanding works from one of the greatest private collections of 20th-century fashion. Featuring iconic works by established designers as well as pioneering works by lesser-known couturiers, the ensembles, accessories, and works on paper—collected over seven decades by pioneering collector Sandy Scheier—include many rare pieces that define key moments in fashion history. Fashions by Gilbert Adrian, Cristobal Balenciaga, Boué Soeurs, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Maria Gallenga, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, and others are illustrated with new photography by Nicolas Alan Cope. A fascinating introduction, six informative chapters, and a lively interview with Schreier trace the progress of her collection from its roots in Detroit to the present.
The exhibition will feature an assembly of one of the finest private fashion collections in the United States. The show will explore how Schreier amassed a trove of 20-century French and American couture and ready-to-wear, though not as a wardrobe, but in appreciation of this form of creative expression.
The gift is part of The Met’s 2020 Collections Initiative celebrating the Museum’s 150th anniversary. “In Pursuit of Fashion” will feature approximately 80 of the 165 promised gifts, including womenswear, accessories and fashion illustrations dating from a 1908 pochoir album, Les Robes de Paul Poiret, developed in collaboration with Paul Iribe to a 2004 Phillip Treacy butterfly hat.
In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection by Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu, Curator in Charge, with photographs by Nicolas Alan Cope and a preface and interview by Jessica Regan and Mellissa Huber, associate curator and assistant curator, respectively, for The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The collectible book retails for $50 and will be accompanying the exhibition at The Met Fifth Avenue, on view from Nov. 27 through May 17, 2020.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 5th Ave, New York. For more information on the Costume Institute and current exhibitions, visit www.metmuseum.org.
