Supermodel Kate Moss, singer Justin Timberlake, and editor-in-chief of American Vogue Anna Wintour are all three set to co-chair the upcoming Costume Institute Gala Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 4th in honor of the museum’s spring 2009 exhibition, ‘The Model as Muse.’ Regarded as the Oscars of fashion, Marc Jacobs, who will underwrite the exhibit along with Condé Nast, will be the event’s honorary chair.
Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Met’s Costume Institute, has said that “the exhibition will examine a timeline of fashion over the past 100 years through the paradigm of the fashion model. We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer’s message to the wider world.” Adding that “in every period, high fashion is presented and made desirable by a handful of models who capture in their beauty the ideals of the day.”
“The Model as Muse” will follow the evolution of models from the times of Worth and Poiret through the emergence of the ‘superwaif’, embodied by Kate Moss with the influence of models including Lisa Fonssagrives, Suzy Parker, Dovima, Jean Shrimpton, Veruschka, Twiggy, Jerry Hall, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Gisele Bundchen examined in between.
The exhibition features about 70 haute couture and ready-to-wear fashions alongside photography, fashion editorial, advertising, runway images, and video footage of models, rock stars, socialites and actresses from each of the examined eras. It is planned to have Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Helmut Lang, Lanvin, Claude Montana, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Jil Sander, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Gucci, Halston, Versace, Viktor & Rolf, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, and Yohji Yamamoto pieces along with photographs from, among others, Avedon, David Bailey, Horst, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, and Bert Stern.
The exhibition opens to the public on May 6th and runs through August 9th at the museum’s Tisch Galleries.
Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
