It looks like the future of fashion — from styles to materials to manufacture — weighs not merely on designers’ minds at the recently concluded Spring-Summer 2016 shows. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which announced the topic of The Costume Institute’s spring 2016 exhibition on October 14, is eager to know how the way clothes are being made now shape the way we view how they were made in the good old days.
So the battle of the hand-made garments versus the machine-made garments is on at the exhibition manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology (which, in a nod to its sponsor Apple Inc., is aptly titled entirely in lowercase).
Exploring the impact of technology on fashion, the show will feature more than 100 examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear, tracing various craftsmanship methods starting with when the sewing machine was invented in the 19th century, through the age of industrialization, and up till the current period of mass production.
The aim is to study the ongoing dichotomy in which hand and machine are presented as opposing instruments in the creative processes that lead to the distinction between the haute couture and ready-to-wear, respectively.
“Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made, but recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator in The Costume Institute. “manus x machina will challenge the conventions of the hand/machine dichotomy, and propose a new paradigm germane to our age of digital technology.”
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, added, “Both the automated and handcrafted process require similar amounts of thoughtfulness and expertise. There are instances where technology is optimized, but ultimately it’s the amount of care put into the craftsmanship, whether it’s machine-made or hand-made, that transforms ordinary materials into something extraordinary.”
The show will be presented in both the Robert Lehman Wing and Anna Wintour Costume Center. In the former, a series of pairings of handmade haute couture garments and their machine-made ready-to-wear counterparts will be arranged enfilade, to carefully show the various constituent petites mains workshops (for embroidery, feathers, pleating, knitting, lacework, leatherwork, braiding, and fringe work) of a couturier’s atelier. These will be juxtaposed against garments that have incorporated 21st century technology, such as 3D-printing, laser cutting, thermo shaping, computer modeling, circular knitting, ultrasonic welding, and bonding and laminating.
Meanwhile, the Anna Wintour Costume Center galleries will function like a group of workshops, where visitors can get an in-depth look at several of the abovementioned techniques while they are “in process”.
The long list of designers represented in the exhibition include boldfaced names from the past and present, such as Charles James, Paul Poiret, Hubert de Givenchy, Madame Grès, Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Azzedine Alaïa, Hussein Chalayan, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), and Iris van Herpen.
manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology will run from May 5 through August 14, 2016 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. To view some early highlights from the exhibition, click on the slideshow.
