In America: An Anthology of Fashion

The Costume Institute’s annual exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” is the second installation in a concept examining the foundations of fashion in the U.S. Existing across 13 period rooms in the museum’s American Wing, curators Andrew Bolton, Amelia Peck, and Jessica Regan have compiled around 100 articles of men’s and women’s clothing dating from the 19th century to the mid-late 20th century to craft a portrait of the complexities of American fashion and its social, cultural, and artistic narratives. The exhibition saw 9 film directors (like Radha Blank, Sofia Coppola, Julie Dash, and Martin Scorsese) invited to help imagine a series of vignettes throughout the presentation, utilizing a cinematic approach to create an engaging dialogue that includes the work of the New Orleans-based dressmaker Madame Olympe, dating around 1865, and other garments created by the likes of Marguery Bolhagen, Franziska Noll Gross, Halston, Herman Rossberg, Oscar de la Renta, Anne Fogarty, Brooks Brothers, and more.