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Depending on how culturally woke you are, it may shock you to learn that Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology is more than just an elaborate explainer for the 2016 Met Gala’s ‘white tie tech’ dress code.
Contrary to its appearance as the year’s chicest personal branding opportunity, the Met Gala actually exists to support the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Institute exhibition Manus x Machina – a staggering showcase of the inestimable possibilities of fashion when the world’s most creative designers are given total freedom of creative expression.
Assembled by Head Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton, the exhibit features more than 150 examples of avant-garde haute couture and ready-to-wear from the early 20th century to now, including works from Dutch techno couture master Iris van Herpen, Issey Miyake, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Miuccia Prada and Karl Lagerfeld for CHANEL, whose couture wedding dress (which took the house’s petite mains 450 hours to make) is the exhibition’s arguable headliner.
You can preview some of the exhibition’s key pieces below, before making an international beeline for Manus x Machina, which opens at the Metropolitan Museum from May 5 to August 14.
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art