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  • Writer's pictureGwennan Jones
    • Jul 28
    • 15 min read

Week 5: ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ Virtual Tour

Introduction

This week was my final week at the college meaning a presentation workshop that I will refer back to during Week 10 when formulating my presentation. The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a vital pillar in the Met Gala and connotes the potential theme of the year. To write an exhibition overview without attending the exhibition in-person proved a logistical challenge. With the knowledge of my prior experience paired with online resources I could find. I read the exhibit synopsis on the museum website, watched a virtual tour with Andrew Bolton (Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and read a 182 page wall didactic document to inform me further of the contents of the exhibit (and galleries that were not spoken of in the initial exhibition tour) in order to write an exhibition overview to the best of my ability - highlighting key parts of the exhibit in a well-rounded exhibition review, fit for the publication as a smaller element of a wider project. 


This was specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted based on my situation. I harnessed my skill set: being able to research effectively by gathering and analysing various resources, critically assessing the contents of the exhibition to highlight key looks within the exhibition without attending and communicating my findings clearly in the overview. This endeavour tested my flexibility skills. 


Classwork

Presentations Overview & Creating Great Presentations / Presentation Slides Workshop With Armand Cordero

I am still mid-way through the process of creating my IFP. Therefore during Week 10, I will refer back to this lecture when I am creating Assignment 3. I decided against using the premade Project Management Sheet as I have been referring to the content calendar I have made for this specific project to inform what I do for Assignment 1 and 2. I took the following notes from the lecture (Cordero, 2024):


  • Think of clear headings that help link to the aspects of which you are being examined. 

  • Highlight the knowledge and skills that you used, developed or gained during the ideation process, development, and completion of your project.

  • Explain your creative process, with information on the specific skills you enhanced or developed in order to fulfil your individual project brief.

  • Include information on the software / tech platforms selected and how you used related skills during the project. 

  • Highlight the biggest challenges and how you overcame / resolved them. 

  • Create a slide deck specifically for the purpose of this oral exam / presentation. 

  • There are no LO’s about the presentation, they are all about the criticality and content. 

  • The slides need to do all the work. Everything we need should be visually displayed in image with relevant text. It is not a document but a visual / textual / verbal overview answering the questions related to the assignment.

  • Make sure your slides are appropriate in style and branding for the specific project. If your concept has a name, then brand / title slides accordingly. Don’t say ‘my project’, embed the branding. Use all the skills you have learned in branding and design. 

  • Avoid using premade templates to avoid a generalised look.

  • Talk about what you will include in the graduate showcase exhibition. 

  • Reduce the file size for your Wix websites.

  • Make a content page in the slides.

  • Selecting appropriate font pairs (Choose fonts that compliment each other, ensure readability and professionalism, avoid using more than two or three fonts, consider the tone and style of your presentation). 

  • Ideal font sizes for readability (Title: 36 - 44 pt, Subheadings 24 - 30 pt, Body text: 18 - 22 pt, ensure consistency across slides).

  • Balancing Style & Legibility (Use serif fonts for titles / headings, use serif fonts for body text, avoid overly decorative fonts, test readability from a distance). 

  • Text & Visual Balance (Keep text concise and to the point, use bullet points instead of paragraphs, limit text to key messages, ensure a clear visual hierarchy, incorporate images, graphs, charts, use visuals to explain complex ideas, ensure visuals are high quality and relevant, balance text and visuals on each slide, aim for a 50/50 balance of text and visuals, use visuals to break up text, highlight key points with visuals, avoid cramming too much information on one slide). 

  • Use multimedia in your presentation.

  • Use AI to predict potential presentation questions.

  • Rehearse your presentation.


Independent Study

‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ Exhibition Overview

Website Synopsis

Last year on a trip to New York with the college, we had a pre-opening viewing of the ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty' exhibit at the Met as a tribute to the designer and seeing the creation of his designs through his lens. After this experience, I am familiar with the space and the storytelling of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibitions. I began familiarising myself with the exhibition through reading the website synopsis, where I took the following quotes and notes to use to write a small article for the book about the happenings of the museum (The Met, n.d.):


  • Made Possible by TikTok

  • Support Provided by Loewe

  • Additional Support Provided by Condé Nast

  • Multi-sensory experience (immersive exhibition with sensory experiences including video animations, soundscapes, and smells)

  • “first-hand research, conservation analysis, and diverse technologies—from cutting-edge tools of artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery to traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection, and soundscapes.”

  • Reawakening pieces that have gone to bed. 

  • “When an item of clothing enters the Costume Institute collection, its status is changed forever. What was once a vital part of a person’s life is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled. This exhibition reanimates these objects, helping us experience them as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, dynamism, and life.”

  • 220 garments and accessories spanning four centuries, all visually connected through themes of nature

  • “experience—via the illusion technique known as Pepper’s ghost—how the “hobble skirt” restricted women’s stride in the early 20th century”

  • “Punctuating the galleries will be a series of “sleeping beauties”—garments that can no longer be dressed on mannequins due to their extreme fragility”


Online Virtual Tour with Andrew Bolton (Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

(The Met, 2024)


I took the following notes from watching this video of the exhibition:

  • “Case studies united by the theme of nature”

  • Elements: Earth, Air and Water

  • Sleeping beauties of inherent vice are literally laid down “self-destructing with the passage of time”, opening with a piece laid to rest by Charles Frederick Worth “no current conservation treatment available to preserve the dress and stabilise the satin”. 

  • Extreme fragility

  • “The extreme fragility of the gown precludes it from being dressed on a mannequin, so in the exhibition its displayed flat in a glass case like all the other sleeping beauties. While conservation friendly, this display denies visitors with the truest expression of the dress which requires the dimensionality of a body”

  • Too delicate

  • This gown was virtually resurrected through a pepper's ghost hologram “the dress underwent an extensive regimen of digital scanning, photography, construction analysis and pattern making… the content was then manipulated to fit a digital avatar.” The gown was intended for a ball, so professional dancers' body movements were analysed to create this illusion - almost like a form of time travel. 

  • First section of the exhibition is Earth: Flowers in fashion

  • Blurred blossoms

    • “painterly [watercolour] effect through a labour-intensive technique known as ‘chiné a la branch’”. 

  • The red rose gallery: sculptures.

    • “Phillip Tracey’s headpiece evokes the flowers fragility”

    • Smell molecules from the gowns in this gallery exude from tubes on the walls.

  • Scent of a Man

    • Scent and the memories it induces 

    • Marni pieces resemble an old scrapbook of flowers

  • The Garden

    • “Lily of the valley was Dior’s lucky flower, his seamstresses would incorporate a sprig of the flower into the hemlines of his dresses”

    • The exhibition features a coat from Jonathon Anderson’s Spring Summer 2023 Menswear collection for Loewe “embroidery which negotiates the paradox of nature and artifice, serves as a metaphor for fashion’s ephemerality”, in a collaboration with Paula Ulargui Escalona “a bio-designer who cultivates plants to grow on clothes”, revolutionising how we view sustainable clothing

  • The Garden Live

    • Transitional gallery for the elements of earth and air 

    • “The embroidery presents a vision of an English garden seething with vitality. Strawberries ripen, pea pods burst open and birds snatch and dragonflies”. Brought to life in an animated projection on the domed ceiling. The embroidered feeling is captured in the tactile gallery walls

  • “Beatles account for ¼ of animal species on earth” which humans have used for centuries as methods of adornment. 

  • Butterflies 

    • “Butterflies have fluttered onto the pages of poets in countless euphoric and enigmatic metaphors but perhaps the most universal is transformation. Stemming from their unique life cycle from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, figuratively embodying life, death and rebirth”

    • Sarah Burton for her debut Alexander McQueen collection after her mentor took his life just months earlier. Using turkey feathers to emulate the Monarch butterfly, which “symbolises hope, resilience and endurance. Encapsulated in its annual 3000 mile migration across North America, a journey evoked in the animation filling the gallery”

  • Water

    • The appeal of seashells “stems from their ability to amplify ambient noise frequencies” which is exploited in McQueen’s razor clam dress featured in his Voss collection.

  • “The mythological siren was portrayed as a bird woman, by the 7th century she was depicted with a fish tail; and by the Middle Ages her reputation as a deadly sea-dwelling seductress was firmly established” “In much of Africa and the African diaspora the archetype of the siren finds a correlation in Mami Wata whos origins can be traced to ancient African water spirits”

  • The final gallery - The Mermaid Bride

    • Callot Soeurs at the Dawn of the Great Depression (attributed to Pierre Gerber) 1930

      • “Belonged to New York socialite Natalie Potter who wore the look to her wedding” 

      • “Its cathedral length train features an expanse of interlocking scallops that recall undulating ocean waves and the concentric circles of seashells”

      • 1920’s silhouette, with feminine aesthetic of the 1930s

      • Visitors can converse directly with Natalie using Artificial Intelligence


Ambitions of the exhibition:

  • “Extending the principally unisensory visual readings of fashion within museums to multi-sensory and non-visual interpretations”

  • “Realising the essential preservation and conservation needs of costumes while still creating sensorially experimental and enlightening exhibitions that encourage personal and participatory connections”

  • While the garments are “destined for an eternal slumber… dont forget their sensorial histories…” Their beings only need to be recharged through sensorial experiences (The Met, 2024).


After watching the exhibition tour, I was in awe of the craftsmanship and thought, not only by the designers but for the curation element of the exhibition. Which made me consider my approach to creating and curating the book. There must be a narrative which explores the intricacies of the event from start to finish.


I want to include as much information as possible about this exhibition within the book. The exhibition is also incredibly densely packed with a rich history of fashion culture and references which isn’t all fully covered in the video. With this in mind, the museum has already published an exhibition catalogue about the exhibit so I don’t want to create a duplicate. While it’s important to include details about this exhibition for context, people will be buying the book to learn about the gala segment of the event. In my flat plan, I have dedicated two double page spreads to discuss this exhibit, therefore for the written article I believe it would be best to do a general overview of the exhibit and use 3 examples of notable pieces within the exhibition. 


At this moment in time, the pieces that stand out most to me are the Charles Fredrick-Worth sleeping beauty at the beginning of the exhibit which was imaged in motion using AI, the butterfly dress by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen symbolising rebirth after his passing and the Mermaid Bride dress that belonged to a New York socialite in the 1930s. These pieces perfectly capture the beginning, middle and end of the exhibition. I believe this must be included in the book, which will encourage those that are interested in my piece, to purchase the exhibition catalogue in conjunction with the Met Gala book. 


Reading the Booklet of Large Print Exhibition Text / Wall Didactics

As I am unable to visit the ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ exhibition in-person, I decided to read the wall didactics to inform my written piece. I am now aware that there are further galleries within the exhibition that were not mentioned in the exhibition video I watched prior to this such as:


  • Painted flowers

  • Blurred blossoms

  • Dior’s Garden

  • Poppies

  • Garthwaite’s Garden

  • The Red Rose “There are few flowers that have been more lauded by poets and painters than the red rose, which has been invoked as a symbol of love, beauty, romance, passion, and sexuality” (this gallery contains a smell experience) (The Met, 2024).

  • The Specter of the Rose “The ghostly remains of perfumes past that remain embedded in the dresses on display have been translated into scented paint applied to the wall opposite” (The Met, 2024).

  • Scent of a Man

  • Smell of a Woman

  • The Garden

  • Reseda Luteola

  • Garden Life (“gardening and embroidery were closely allied in the 16th and 17th centuries”) (The Met, 2024).

  • Insects

  • Beetle Wings

  • Butterflies “Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man,” novelist Vladimir Nabokov once professed” (The Met, 2024).

  • The Birds

  • The Nightingale and the Rose

  • Marine Life

  • Venus (Junon Dress here > “New spangles, luminous, iridescent, like jewels drowned in the sea.” This is how Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow described the two ball gowns by Christian Dior displayed here when they made their debut as part of his autumn/winter 1949– 50 collection. Their mythological nomenclature— referencing the Roman deities Venus, goddess of love, beauty, and passion, and Juno, goddess of marriage—is mere pretext for an exuberant demonstration of material abundance, in the form of glistening aquatic embroidery from the firm of Rébé.” “​​Dior’s iteration of Venus evokes the froth of her legendary birth from the sea with a cascading trained peplum of soft gray tulle, each undulation embroidered by hand with crystals and iridescent paillettes (given life in the animation). With “Junon,” the blue-green sequins that edge the individual sections of the scalloped skirt also impart an undeniably aqueous effect, despite nominally referencing the feathers of Juno’s traditional animal attendant, the peacock” (The Met, 2024). 

  • Seashells

  • The Siren

  • Snakes

  • The Mermaid

  • The Mermaid Bride


(The Met, 2024)


Case Studies

(The Met, 2024)


Learning more about this subject matter has reminded me of my earlier studies at the beginning of the course, when we were educated on the fashion greats such as Charles Frederick-Worth and Paul Poiret where I see their influence in this exhibition and how their work has evolved in the hands of fashion. I am now able to contextualise fashion history and synthesise large bodies of text into digestible segments. 


Compiling my Information to Formulate a Written Piece

Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion

In a newly curated immersive exhibition at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ evokes the senses in a multidisciplinary temporary reawakening of 220 of fashion’s most fragile pieces from Dior to Phillip Treacy; spanning 4 centuries through soundscapes, light projections, scents (captured from molecules on garments) and artificial intelligence - all visually connected by nature (Met Gala, n.d.). The galleries from ‘The Specter of the Rose’ to ‘Venus’ and ‘The Siren’, capture the harmonious balance of nature, highlighting how its elements intertwine seamlessly and sustain each other in a delicate equilibrium. 


In collaboration with the museum, special support was provided to the exhibition by TikTok, Loewe and Condé Nast; the exhibition is open from the first Monday in May, through to the 2nd of September 2024. 


Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Andrew Bolton’s thesis behind the exhibition is “when an item of clothing enters the Costume Institute collection, its status is changed forever. What was once a vital part of a person’s life is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled. This exhibition reanimates these objects, helping us experience them as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, dynamism, and life” (The Met, n.d.). 


For Anna Wintour’s interpretation on how the exhibition speaks to her, she credits Bolton’s work at length, “he based the show on archival pieces that are too fragile to even be put on a mannequin so he called those our muses… our sleeping beauties. We’re trying to awaken them in the exhibition through the senses, whether its smell, sound or technology” (Hello Tefi, 2024).


House of Worth

To open the exhibit, we see the revival of a ball gown by Charles Fredrick-Worth, the father of haute couture, with details of embroidered gold sequins and silk satin appliquéd with cream silk tulle (The Met, 2024). The sleeping beauty of inherent vice is literally laid to rest in a glass case as it can no longer be dressed on a mannequin due to its extreme fragility, “self-destructing with the passage of time,” with “no current conservation treatment available to preserve the dress and stabilise the satin” (The Met, 2024). While respecting the delicacy of the dress, viewers lose touch of the essence of the gown in movement, so the gown was virtually resurrected through an illusion known as a Pepper's ghost hologram “the dress underwent an extensive regimen of digital scanning, photography, construction analysis and pattern making… the content was then manipulated to fit a digital avatar.” The gown was intended for a ball, so professional dancers' body movements were analysed to create this illusion - almost like a form of time travel. 


Butterflies

In another monumental look on display, we see a dress from Sarah Burton’s Spring Summer 2011 debut for Alexander McQueen after her mentor took his life just months earlier. Using dyed and painted turkey feathers to emulate the Monarch butterfly which “symbolises hope, resilience and endurance. Encapsulated in its annual 3000 mile migration across North America, a journey evoked in the animation filling the gallery” (The Met, 2024). The wall didactics of the exhibit read “Butterflies have fluttered onto the pages of poets in countless euphoric and enigmatic metaphors but perhaps the most universal is transformation. Stemming from their unique life cycle from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, figuratively embodying life, death and rebirth” symbolising Burton’s spirit extraction of McQueen into this collection (The Met, 2024). 


The Mermaid Bride

The final gallery holds ‘The Mermaid Bride’, a wedding ensemble rolling in waves down the steps designed by Callot Soeurs at the Dawn of the Great Depression. The ensemble belonged to Natalie Potter, a New York socialite for her wedding day in 1930; “its cathedral length train features an expanse of interlocking scallops that recall undulating ocean waves and the concentric circles of seashells,” with a 20s silhouette reflecting the feminine 30s taste (The Met, 2024). Gallery visitors are able to converse directly with the bride using Artificial Intelligence.


Conclusion

To conclude, the exhibition's biophilic nature extends “principally unisensory visual readings of fashion within museums to multi-sensory and non-visual interpretations” (The Met, 2024). While the garments are precious, “destined for an eternal slumber… dont forget their sensorial histories,” the garments' soul beings can be recharged through sensorial experiences without compromising their essential preservation to bring them back to life (The Met, 2024). Bolton explores fashion museums beyond sight in this sensorial experience on a scientific level. 


Current Thoughts on the IFP

As I am more immersed in the IFP, I thought about conducting commission-based writing (for example, Cerys Jones at Lapp or Georgie Lunn at Wonderland Magazine, perhaps even reaching out to the Fashion Journalism group chat for volunteers), as I would do for a real-life publication to reduce my workload. I decided against this as I am being graded on my written portfolio, so this body of work should ideally all be my own to showcase my written communication skills.


Tasks & Further Reading

Aristotle's 7 Elements of Good Storytelling 

(Interaction Design Foundation, n.d.)


Tips for Writing Concisely 

  1. Play dumb

  2. Cut pointless words

  3. Write short sentences (Barker, 2024).


Brand Purpose Doesn’t Require a Commercial Excuse

  • The importance of neutrality in written text which is hugely important for a mass-market publication like Vogue. 

  • “Whether it is food waste, animal rights, social inclusion or a raft of other non-commercial objectives, it’s time to accept that marketers now inhabit a neo-purpose world” which can be relevant when understanding how the theme can be applied to a number of causes (Ritson, 2024).

(Ritson, 2024)


Three Quarters of Consumers Say Inclusion and Diversity Influence Their Purchase Decisions

  • “A global study by marketing data and analytics business Kantar reveals that 75% of consumers say that a brand's diversity and inclusion reputation influences their purchase decisions”

  • “This study has found that progressive, inclusive advertising drives a significant sales uplift of over 16% when compared with less progressive ad content and has a significant impact on consumer loyalty, buying intentions and a brand’s pricing power”

  • “Consumer expectations are high: 75% of consumers globally say that diversity and inclusion – or a lack thereof – influence their purchase decisions” (Kantar, 2024).


This study suggests for my IFP, consumers must align with the Vogue and The Met brand positioning and inclusive identity in order to cement their purchasing decisions.


Mid-Point Review: My Updated RDPJ Post Framework & Term Calendar


Key Takeaways

  • Writing concisely requires extensive further reading so that as a writer you are informed in tone-of-voice. In terms of my skill set I am an adaptable candidate through being able to write an exhibition overview without attending based on sheer research. 

  • When writing for a platform such as Vogue, you must have a sense of neutrality.

  • We live in a neo-purpose world which means brands are moving towards advocating for non-commercial causes within their brand messaging in places like the Met Gala red carpet.


Next Week

Based on the calendar I set myself at the beginning of the term, next week I will be designing the cover of my publication. I will also aim to complete 2 written profiles on Shakira’s Met Gala preparation with Carolina Herrera after interviewing Jodie Chan (VP Global Marketing and Communications), then another on The Mark Hotel (famous for hosting Met Gala guests) in an interview with Andrew Cosenza (PR Consulting for the Mark Hotel).


Reference List

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