Women Dressing Women
The Costume Institute’s fall 2023 exhibition will explore the creativity and artistic legacy of women fashion designers from The Met’s permanent collection, tracing a lineage of makers from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day by highlighting celebrated designers, new voices, and forgotten histories alike.
Women Dressing Women will feature the work of over seventy womenswear designers, spanning ca. 1910 to 2022, including French haute couture from houses such as Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Madeleine Vionnet, to American makers like Ann Lowe, Claire McCardell, and Isabel Toledo, along with contemporary designs by Iris van Herpen, Rei Kawakubo, Anifa Mvuemba, and Simone Rocha.
The Costume Institute announces fall exhibition, ‘Women Dressing Women’
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has announced its Fall 2023 exhibition, on display from Dec. 7, 2023 to March 3, 2024. “Women Dressing Women” will honor the artistic and creative vision of women designers and women-led fashion houses from the 20th century to today. From Vivienne Westwood to Miuccia Prada, more than 70 different female designers will be represented through about 80 items. Less-celebrated designers, like Ann Lowe, and newer contemporary ones, like Anifa Mveumba (of Hanifa) and Hillary Taymour (of Collina Strada) will also be featured. “Our fall exhibition will provide an opportunity to engage with the critical histories of innovative women designers, all of whom played pivotal roles in the conception of fashion as we know it today,” said Mellissa Huber, associate curator, The Costume Institute, in a statement. “In recognizing that the contributions of women to fashion are unquantifiable, our intention with this show is to celebrate and acknowledge through a focus on The Costume Institute’s permanent collection, which represents a rich timeline of Western fashion history. We hope that this exhibition will foster impactful conversations between our visitors and across the designers’ larger bodies of work, highlighting the plurality and diversity of women’’ important contributions to the field.”
