2017 Met Gala to Showcase Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo Fascination with Interstitially
The annual celebration will be co-chaired by Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Anna Wintour, with Kawakubo serving as Honorary Chair.
Fashion editors, designers and celebrities wearing elaborate and unique ensembles will reunite for fashion’s biggest night: The annual Met Gala in support of the Costume Institute.
Established in 1946, after the Museum of Costume Art merged with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the annual extravaganza is regarded as one of the most exclusive social events in New York.
Traditionally taking place on the first Monday in May, this year the Metropolitan Museum of Art will debut the Costume Institute’s spring 2017 exhibition “Rei Kawakubo/ Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between.”
“In blurring the art/fashion divide, Kawakubo asks us to think differently about clothing,” expressed Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Met. “Curator Andrew Bolton will explore work that often looks like sculpture in an exhibition that will challenge our ideas about fashion’s role in contemporary culture.”
The 2017 dinner and fundraising benefit will take place on May 1 and be co-chaired by Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, with Kawakubo serving as Honorary Chair. The showcase marks the first monograph exhibition at the museum to focus on a living designer since its Yves Saint Laurent exhibit in 1983. With this new exhibition, as is tradition, guests are encouraged to base their attire on the exhibit’s theme and interpret it in their own way.
“I have always pursued a new way of thinking about design…by denying established values, conventions, and what is generally accepted as the norm,” added Rei Kawakubo.
“And the modes of expression that have always been most important to me are fusion…imbalance… unfinished… elimination…and absence of intent.”
The showcase will be open to the public from May 4 through September 4 and examine the work of the Japanese fashion designer and her fascination with interstitiality – orthe space between boundaries.
The collection will feature approximately 120 examples of Kawakubo’s womenswear designs for Comme des Garçons, dating from her first Paris runway show in 1981 to her most recent collection. The show is organized by contrasting themes like East/West, male/female, and past/present to examine the designer’s revolutionary experiments in interstitiality.
Last year’s exhibition, “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” which explored the role of technology in fashion from the 20th-century to the present, featured more than 170 looks and attracted more than 350,000 visitors.
“Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between” will be featured on the Museum’s website, www. metmuseum.org/ReiKawakubo, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via #MetKawakubo, #CostumeInstitute, and #MetGala. Don’t miss all the excitement!
