On a gloomy Met Gala Monday, hours before the parade of celebrities on the steps of the museum, fashion designers and members of the press gathered to take a look at a preview of the Costume Institute’s new exhibit, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The collection of garments and accessories played on the contrast between images of nature and modern technologies.
The designers Pierpaolo Piccioli, Thom Browne, Hillary Taymour, Phillip Lim and Jonathan Anderson filtered into the museum’s Charles Engelhard Court as Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Condé Nast and the editor in chief of Vogue, arrived just before opening remarks began.
The speeches about this year’s exhibit focused on the possibilities brought about by new technologies, specifically artificial intelligence, and how it can be used as a tool in art and fashion. Speakers also noted the interactive components in the exhibit that are intended to activate viewers’ senses — sight, sound and, yes, smell (the work of the artist Sissel Tolaas). Parts of the exhibit included rub-and-sniff walls and clear tubes that funneled scent molecules from some of the more than 200 garments. Guests were encouraged to touch a 3-D-printed wall that mimicked the florals of a nearby black Christian Dior dress.
Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute, said in an interview that the idea to use A.I. in the exhibit was inspired by a conversation he had with Ms. Taymour, the designer behind Collina Strada, who had integrated it into her creative process.
“I’m a complete technophobe,” Mr. Bolton said. “Anything that will sort of help me move my practice forward in one way or another is so exciting.”
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