The Vatican culture minister, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, joined US Vogueeditor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace and Pierpaolo Piccioli at the press conference, which examined fashion's relationship with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism.
"Some might consider fashion to be an unfitting or unseemly medium by which to engage with ideas about the sacred or the divine," curator Andrew Bolton said on Monday. "But dress is central to any discussion about religion. It affirms religious allegiances and, by extension, it asserts religious differences."
The exhibition will feature some 40 Vatican vestments and accessories spanning 15 papacies, which Bolton is said to have visited at least 10 times to secure pieces which have never left the Vatican's possession before, the Guardian reports. Items such as Pope Benedict XV's white silk cape embroidered with gold thread and the pointed bishops' hat of Pope Leo XIII, will go on display alongside pieces by Coco Chanel, who was educated by nuns, John Galliano, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Donatella Versace, who is a sponsor of the exhibition. The theme is being slated as the Met's most controversial yet, owing to the positioning of these fashion garments alongside sacred artefacts.
The exhibition will feature some 40 Vatican vestments and accessories spanning 15 papacies, which Bolton is said to have visited at least 10 times to secure pieces which have never left the Vatican's possession before, the Guardian reports. Items such as Pope Benedict XV's white silk cape embroidered with gold thread and the pointed bishops' hat of Pope Leo XIII, will go on display alongside pieces by Coco Chanel, who was educated by nuns, John Galliano, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Donatella Versace, who is a sponsor of the exhibition. The theme is being slated as the Met's most controversial yet, owing to the positioning of these fashion garments alongside sacred artefacts.
"Fashion reflects the world around us and nobody understands that more clearly than Andrew," Wintour, museum trustee and Met Gala co-chair, told the press. "When I go to these fashion exhibitions. I'm always so amazed to see people from all sides of the globe and all walks of life really studying the exhibitions, understanding that fashion does not operate in a vacuum."
The annual Met Gala, which is dubbed the Oscars of the fashion industry, will take place on May 7, with the dress code taking on the theme of the exhibition. How the famous faces of the fashion world will negotiate religious iconography into red-carpet wear is a feat the world is waiting to see.
The annual Met Gala, which is dubbed the Oscars of the fashion industry, will take place on May 7, with the dress code taking on the theme of the exhibition. How the famous faces of the fashion world will negotiate religious iconography into red-carpet wear is a feat the world is waiting to see.
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