Met Gala 2024: How to Literally Touch and Smell Fashion Details at The Met Museum’s New Costume Institute Show

How does historic fashion compete with the likes of Zendaya and Jennifer Lopez on the biggest night of the New York calendar? That’s Andrew Bolton’s superpower.

The curator in charge of the Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2016, Bolton, 57, excels at producing fashion exhibits that are multilayered and visually arresting, while also answering a question — “Is fashion art?” — with a resounding yes.

Zendaya and Lopez, alongside fellow co-hosts Chris Hemsworth, Bad Bunny and Condé Nast chief content officer and Vogue global editorial director Anna Wintour, will join the throngs of Hollywood elite echoing the concept of fashion as art when they gather May 6 for the museum’s annual Met Gala. The night will include a preview of Bolton’s new show, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, which opens May 10. Curated from the 33,000 pieces in the institute’s collection, the 250-piece exhibition explores notions of femininity and fragility, all woven through a thread of nature. 

Bolton tells THR that one experiential aspect of the idea originated after witnessing a young girl being asked not to touch pieces in the institute’s 2023 exhibit Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. “I thought, I’d love to do a show that gets around those ideas of museum etiquette, but of course in a wholly respectful way,” Bolton says. A prime example of that is an embroidered women’s British waistcoat from the 17th century, displayed under glass for its protection, while its lush motif of strawberries has been duplicated as a textured wallpaper attendees will be able to touch without fear of admonishment from security guards.

Fold in Bolton’s desire to focus on pieces from the museum’s permanent collection, and the race was on to shape a show that, as its name implies, would not only reawaken historic garments from their squirreled-away slumber in the archives, but might reawaken viewers’ sensibilities as well.

Fourteen pieces on show are true “Sleeping Beauties,” items so fragile, they can only be displayed flat in glass cases that Bolton has dubbed “coffins.” “It’s a different way to appreciate the ephemerality of fashion; many are pieces we normally would never show … but even that state of demise should be seen and appreciated,” he says. 

Wintour tells THR that “Andrew’s great gift is not only his ability to engage us with fascinating narratives through his exhibitions, but that he has this extraordinary way of giving fashion’s history contemporary relevance. So many times he’ll mention an idea, a thought, an intuition about the curatorial approach to a show, only for me to then see it emerge in the culture. His way of looking at the past always has one eye to the future.”

With this show, engaging all the senses is a priority for Bolton. For sound, Bolton thought of the rustling of silk, an element prized in gowns of the 18th century — the louder the rustling, the better the silk — which is represented by a circa-1740 robe à la française. Notes Bolton, “Silk has a particular sound, a combination of scrape and whoop that’s known as ‘scroop,’ and we did lots of research to emulate that sound.”

To heighten viewers’ sense of sight, Bolton’s team worked with CGI artists to re-create the inner construction of some dresses, projecting those images throughout the space. Visitors will also experience floral aromas in a section devoted to hats bearing flower motifs.

Bolton exemplifies the idea of a modern renaissance man in multiple ways, not least of which is his ability to seamlessly blend the exquisite beauty of historic fashion with intellectual layers that transcend artistry to become deeper conversations. Yet when discussing the use of CGI and artificial intelligence technology, including a finale that will include an as-yet-unrevealed AI moment, it’s clear Bolton always trusts his instincts. “I’m not the biggest fan of technology when it’s gratuitous,” he notes. “I’m more in favor of marrying technology to heighten the material.”

He also trusts his longtime partner, designer and Council of Fashion Designers of America chairman Thom Browne. How do this undisputed fashion power couple influence each other? “It’s probably more on a subliminal level,” Bolton allows. “We often talk about work, though often it doesn’t tend to be specific. Instead it’s a little more abstract, a little more subliminal. We’re both quite instinctive in terms of how we work.”

Bolton’s show includes a piece by Browne, part of a six-look tableau on a subtheme of sirens. “The original is a piece by Norman Norell, and it’s surrounded by interpretations by Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Joseph Altuzarra and others, including Thom, who did a piece inspired by the idea of a mermaid. They’re all gold, and they’re in just an extraordinary, magical space,” Bolton says.

When it’s mentioned that these six designs are all by men, perhaps lured by the classic imagery of a siren of the sea, Bolton agrees and adds with a laugh, “That’s how mythology works, isn’t it?”

A version of this story first appeared in the April 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.