Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion brings to audiences sensory experiences that take sartorial masterworks to a new level of perception. Whether preserved pristinely or weathered by time and the elements, the Costume Institute’s vast collection is a feat in conservation, featuring 220 garments and accessories connected by nature. Grouped into earth, air, and water, the Leong Leong-designed galleries curve viewers through precious pieces from the Institute’s private collection, some that haven’t seen light in years. Shifting from peonies and roses to nightingales and beetles, then fish and seashells, the exhibit invites you to hear, smell, feel, and witness offerings from Cristòbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Charles James, Charles Frederick Worth, LOEWE, Alexander McQueen, Thom Browne, Iris van Herpen and so many more.

Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, commented, “When an item of clothing enters our collection, its status is changed irrevocably. What was once a vital part of a person’s lived experience is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled,” he explains. “The exhibition endeavors to animate these artworks by re-awakening their sensory capacities through a range of technologies, affording visitors sensorial ‘access’ to rare historical garments and rarefied contemporary fashions.” That access was further curated by Creative Consultant Nick Knight, who developed and realized technological projections with SHOWstudio, while Norwegian smell researcher and artist Sissel Tolaas developed smells that tell the historical story of worn artifacts. Sponsored by TikTok and supported by LOEWE, the exhibition will open to the public on Friday, May 10 and will remain on view through September 2, 2024.