The 2022 Met Gala was this past Monday, and while today many are still talking about the best, worst, and iconic looks from the evening, Glasstire has our eye on one dress that is set to make its Met debut later this week.
Hubert de Givenchy, Evening ensemble, physical object, 1970/1979, University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Visual Arts + Design.
An evening dress on loan from the University of North Texas’ Texas Fashion Collection and designed by Hubert de Givenchy will be featured in the Met’s upcoming exhibition In America: An Anthology of Fashion, which opens on May 7. This is the second portion of a two-part exhibition that explores fashion in the United States.
For the show, the Met has partnered with nine filmmakers (including Sofia Coppola, Regina King, and Martin Scorsese) to create vignettes in various period rooms of the museum’s American Wing. The scenes depict American life spanning more than two hundred years and illustrate personal and political narratives.
Hubert de Givenchy, Evening ensemble, physical object, 1970/1979, University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Visual Arts + Design.
The Givenchy dress, made out of cream-colored chiffon and adorned with a cape that has ostrich feathers lining its edges, will be in a section dedicated to the Battle of Versailles, a 1973 fashion show that pitted young American fashion designers against established French designers and raised funds to preserve the palace of Versailles.
Installation view of “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Photo courtesy of Annette Becker.
Tom Ford, the Texas-native fashion designer and filmmaker, designed the vignette featuring the dress. Rather than seen in a static pose, the mannequin wearing the dress floats in mid-air with its arms dramatically back, as if it had just been hit by another mannequin.
Texas Fashion Collection Director Annette Becker told Glasstire: “This Givenchy design is one from the collection the designer shared during the 1973 fashion show. The Texas Fashion Collection also includes garments created by all of the designers who participated in that event. It’s an honor to have this stunning example of haute couture represent our collection in such an important fashion history exhibition.”
If you can’t make it to the Met between May 7 and September 5, 2022 to see the exhibition, you can see other items designed by Givenchy (as well as other renowned designers) in the exhibition Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection at the CVAD Gallery on the UNT Campus through May 21, 2022.
