Metropolitan Museum announces spring 2020 Costume Institute exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will host "About Time: Fashion and Duration" for its annual spring Costume Institute exhibition. On view from May 7, 2020 through September 7, the show will also aid in the museum's ongoing celebration of its 150th anniversary, as it illustrates 150 years of fashion history.

“This exhibition will consider the ephemeral nature of fashion, employing flashbacks and fast-forwards to reveal how it can be both linear and cyclical,” musem director Max Hollein explained in a statement. “As such, the show will present a nuanced continuum of fashion over the Museum’s 150-year history.”

Curated by Andrew Botlon, "About Time" will employ philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of flowing time to explore the ways in which clothing has generated associations that bring together the past, present, and future.

The exhibition will feature about 160 examples of women’s fashion from 1870 to the today, with most items coming directly from the Costume Institute’s collection.

The museum will again host its annual Costume Institute benefit ahead of the exhibition. Also called the Met Gala, the event is the Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and capital improvements.

This year's Met Gala will be held on May 4, with co-chairs Ncolas Ghesquière, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour.

Image: Surreal, David Bailey (British, born 1938), 1980; Photo © David Bailey | from press room of Met Museum