(Left) Morin Blossier (French). Riding jacket, 1902. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Miss Irene Lewisohn, 1937; (right) Nicolas Ghesquière (French, b 1971) for Louis Vuitton (French, founded 1854). Ensemble, spring/summer 2018. Courtesy of Collection Louis Vuitton.

NEW YORK CITY – The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” traces 150 years of fashion, from 1870 to the present, along a disrupted timeline, in honor of the museum’s 150th anniversary. Employing philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of la durée – the continuity of time – the exhibition explores how clothes generate temporal associations that conflate the past, present, and future. The concept is also examined through the writings of Virginia Woolf, who serves as the exhibition’s “ghost narrator.”

On view to February 7, the exhibition is made possible by Louis Vuitton with corporate sponsorship provided by Condé Nast.

“‘About Time: Fashion and Duration’ considers the ephemeral nature of fashion, employing flashbacks and fast-forwards to reveal how it can be both linear and cyclical,” said Max Hollein, director of the Met. “The result is a show that presents a nuanced continuum of fashion over the museum’s 150-year history.”

(Left) Walking Dress, probably American, circa 1885. Gift of David L. Andrews, 1976; (right) Yohji Yamamoto (Japanese, b 1943). Coat, fall/winter 1986-87. Purchase, Gould Family Foundation Gift, in memory of Jo Copeland, 2014.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu curator in charge of the Costume Institute, said: “Fashion is indelibly connected to time. It not only reflects and represents the spirit of the times, but it also changes and develops with the times, serving as an especially sensitive and accurate timepiece. Through a series of chronologies, the exhibition uses the concept of duration to analyze the temporal twists and turns of fashion history.”

The 2020 Costume Institute Benefit, also known as The Met Gala, which was originally scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2020, did not take place due to the global health crisis. This exhibition serves as the Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and capital improvements.

Presented in the Met Fifth Avenue’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, the exhibition features a timeline of 125 fashions dating from 1870 – the year of the Met’s founding and the start of a decade that witnessed major developments in the global standardization of time – to the present. The majority of objects on view are drawn from the Costume Institute’s collection, including major gifts from designers as part of the Met’s 2020 Collections Initiative, and related to the museum’s 150th anniversary activities.

(Left) Gabrielle Chanel (French, 1883-1971). Suit, spring/summer 1963 haute couture. Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009, Gift of Jane Holzer, 1977; (right) Karl Lagerfeld (French [b Germany], 1933-2019) for House of Chanel (French, founded 1913). Suit, spring/summer 1994. Courtesy of Chanel Patrimoine Collection, Paris.

The timeline unfolds in two adjacent galleries fabricated as enormous clock faces and organized around the principle of 60 minutes of fashion. Each “minute” features a pair of garments, with the primary work representing the linear nature of fashion and the secondary work its cyclical character. To illustrate Bergson’s concept of duration – of the past co-existing with the present – the works in each pair are connected through shape, motif, material, pattern, technique or decoration. For example, a black silk faille princess-line dress from the late 1870s is paired with an Alexander McQueen “Bumster” skirt from 1995. A black silk satin dress with enormous leg-o’-mutton sleeves from the mid-1890s is juxtaposed with a Comme des Garçons deconstructed ensemble from 2004.

All of the garments are black to emphasize changes in silhouette, except at the conclusion of the show, where a white dress from Viktor & Rolf’s spring/summer 2020 haute couture collection, made from upcycled swatches in a patchwork design, serves as a symbol for the future of fashion with its emphasis on community, collaboration and sustainability.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is at 1000 Fifth Avenue. For information, 212-535-7710 or www.metmuseum.org.

(Left) Jean Paul Gaultier (French, born 1952). Dress, fall/winter 1984-85. Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2010; (right) Charles James (American [born Great Britain], 1906-1978). “Tulip” Evening dress, 1949. Gift of Elizabeth de Cuevas, 2015.