MANILA, Philippines - After last year’s successful “Charles James: Beyond Fashion,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion,” slated to run May 7 to Aug. 16. The Anna Wintour Costume Center will look towards China for their upcoming banner exhibit.
Another year, another Met exhibition? More like, another #MetGala red carpet. In just three months, the non-permanent collection will be launched by the big-ticket, no-holds-barred “Super Bowl of Fashion” Met Ball extravaganza. In attendance at the annual museum fundraiser, the carpeted Met steps will play photo wall to a veritable list of high-powered designers, editors, celebrities, muses and industry players, all wearing the haute-est couture.
On the influence of Chinese culture on fashion, film and art, the history of chinoiserie on the runways, the nuances of political correctness and cultural appropriation, the conflation of “orientalism,” and the perils of tokenism — the direction of the show’s curation, let alone the red carpet, has the rich potential to be ingenuously entertaining or utterly divisive. With barely 24 hours since the beginning of a Lunar New Year, YStyle looks to the east in anticipation (and abject apprehension) of what we can expect for the upcoming museum collection.
Cultural insensitivity is nothing new in the self-referential world of fashion; even Vogue as one of the industry’s paragons is not immune to its nuanced pitfalls.
And let’s be honest, the success of the exhibit is directly correlated to how well the celebrities bring it to the red carpet #MetGala. Our biggest fear? A pop star arriving in culturally misappropriated geisha-face and a Jeremy Scott kimono. It could totally happen. Oh wait, it already did. (See: Katy Perry.)
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Organized by The Costume Institute in collaboration with the Met’s Department of Asian Art, the exhibition will “...explore how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries, resulting in highly creative distortions of cultural realities and mythologies.” According to the Metropolitan Museum’s press release: “High fashion will be juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, as well as films, to reveal enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery.”
The curation for “Chinese Whispers” is led by Andrew Bolton, head curator at The Costume Institute. Peerless Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai will lend his cinematic point of view to the exhibit’s art direction — suffusing his take and filmic expertise into the intersections and nuances between East and West. Hong Kong tycoon Silas Chou will host the gala, with Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence, Wong Kar-wai muse Gong Li, Yahoo! president and CEO Marissa Mayer, film producer Wendi Murdoch and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour serving as co-chairs.
The collection will transcend disciplines — from costume, to painting, to sculpture, to film — using the physical media to contextualize the appropriation of China. Drawing from more than a hundred examples of haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion, “Chinese Whispers” is a bid to examine how the West has perceived the aesthetic of China throughout costume history.
The urgency of chinoiserie in fashion peaked at the hands of certain designers, in specific collections throughout their careers. The direct quotation of iconography, motif and mood varied, but the influence of the Chinese aesthetic took hold throughout runway history. In the early decades of the 20th century, the metier of Paul Poiret included themes of “orientalism” and Asian imagery manifesting in his couture. Yves Saint Laurent in 1977 infused his work with inspiration drawn from the outer steppes of Mongolia with the release of his chine-inspired collection and the launch of his controversial scent, Opium.
“Through the looking glass of fashion,” with Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, John Galliano for Christian Dior and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, to name a few examples in fashion history, “designers conjoin disparate stylistic references into a pastiche of Chinese aesthetic and cultural traditions.” Much of this Asian-inspired “pastiche” still continues to surface today, with a strong current of Japonisme and modern interpretations of the obi belt, and trends at the forefront of the spring/summer 2015 collections.
In the current age of post-colonial, post-political correctness, curating a glimpse of “China” through the lens of the West is precarious — but indubitably rich in storied tradition and material. On the dress code alone (something a lot of previous gala-goers choose to eschew), the stage is set for some uncomfortably off-color takes on the theme of “Chinese Whispers.” Red carpet attendees need a succinct reminder to keep tact and sensitivity in choosing what to wear. On that note, we’re hoping for more Chinese designers to make headway on the Met Gala red carpet, from Guo Pei to Laurence Xu. Not to mention a delicious infusion of well-dressed actresses from Chinese Hollywood. From Fan Bing Bing to Li Bing Bing, keep it fresh and binged out.
Here at YStyle, we’re prepped for the Spring Festival’s new bloom and for the proverbial chic to hit the fan. Right on cue: Ready, set… judge.