NEW YORK — From 19th-century court gowns to distressed and ragged garments by current London designers, “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression,” the Costume Institute’s spring exhibit, makes a case for the consistent clash of tradition with the innovative spirit that defines contemporary English society.
The exhibit, which kicks off with the institute’s benefit gala on Monday, touches on elements ranging from the class system to hunting to the gentlemen’s club through the fashion lens. It is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s six English period rooms. Each features scenes styled after fragments of English life.
Visitors enter the exhibit through a giant Union Jack flag topped with a royal crest. The first two garments on display set the tone for the rest: Displayed on the left of the entry is an 18th-century red wool three-piece suit, which is positioned across from a tartan bondage suit and parachute shirt by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. The shirt comes with ribbons that state “No Future” and “Anarchy,” and the mannequin is accessorized with a giant mohawk wig spray-painted with the Union Jack motif.
“The clash between tradition and transgression, past and present, brings this edgy feel, which drives a lot of English designers,” said Andrew Bolton, associate curator of the institute. “People sometimes think of Britain as a conservative country, but at the other extreme, we have the raucous rebel stomping through the countryside.”
The first room’s country garden scene features several 18th-century silk dresses with floral motifs and Philip Treacy orchid hats. The mannequins seem to look at Hussein Chalayan’s pink topiary-inspired dress made from trimmed rosette flowers. The room plays on the “Upstairs, Downstairs” class system, with 19th-century court dresses on the staircases against ragged and tattered Chalayan dresses mopping and dusting on the floor.
In the hunting room, a model sits atop a horse in a silk Burberry trenchcoat created for the exhibit. The deathbed-themed room has a mannequin languidly lying on the floor in the black McQueen gown worn by Gwyneth Paltrow to the Oscars, and the room is flanked by two framed Vivienne Westwood-clad mannequins made to resemble Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. Francomania, meanwhile, plays on the mid-18th-century English obsession with France, with a black Christian Dior couture gown designed by John Galliano topped with a raven’s head by Stephen Jones. The gentlemen’s club juxtaposes dandy tuxedos and suits and a white tail coat by Stella McCartney with punk T-shirts by Westwood in mohawk hairdos.
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“AngloMania” runs from May 4 through Sept. 4. The gala on Monday is cochaired by Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, Sienna Miller and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.