The Costume Institute’s spring 2016 exhibition at The Met explores new ways to approach classical ideas. Their intention with this new collection examines the relationship between man and machine. So it makes sense it’s on the anniversary of the sewing machines’ creation.
As time passes, we as a species learn to adapt and change. We automate, we delegate, we create, just so we don’t have to worry about it ourselves. But do you lose something with that approach? Something personal and human?
The Robert Lehman Wing galleries, on the Museum’s first floor and ground level, is turning into their own personal display – presenting the birth of haute couture and the distinct natures of both machine and man made apparel.
Therefore, the clothing is elegant and sleek. Pieces such as the beautiful 2014 haute couture wedding dress (by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel) put this relationship on display. It has an elegant twenty foot train trailing behind it, and is lavishly designed.
These pieces show off what can be accomplished by machine and man working in tandem. This piece was, “one of the inspirations for the exhibition… the pattern on the train is hand-painted with gold metallic pigment… Machine-printed with rhinestones… And hand-embroidered with pearls and gemstones…”
Read the Full Article: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/manus-x-machina
