Superheroes / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Giorgio Armani

Photographs by fashionartedit

Superheroes Fashion and Fantasy. Sponsored by Giorgio Armani. Armani Exchange. Broadway, New York. 

Superheroes / Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photographs by fashionartedit

Super-Duper Comic Relief at the Met's Superheroes Show. Lynn Yeager. Village Voice. 05.20.08.
excerpted text:

"Even under these challenging circumstances, the Met remains determinedly high-concept; the topic may be pop, but the execution remains." (Lynn Yeager)

"Well, what do you know? Can it be mere coincidence that a spidery glass-and-crystal dress by Signor Giorgio Armani is prominently featured in the 'Graphic Body' tableau? Oh, and look—isn't that gunmetal frock with enormous round shoulders by the same designer? Armani just happens to be the sponsor of this exhibit! (Far better to have included one of his iconic '80s women's suits, the uniform that saw a generation of empowered females ascend the career ladder. Now that was an armored body.) Well, count your blessings—if Ralph Lauren had sponsored the show, we'd be getting metallic equestrian jackets and spiderweb jodhpurs." (Lynn Yeager)

"Oh, well. These sponsored shows raise so much money for the Costume Institute that Koda has told me wearily on more than one occasion that without this financing, there would be no Costume Institute at all." (Lynn Yeager)

Power Dressing

Power Dressing. The New York Times. By Cathy Horyn. 05.09.08.
excerpted text:

"To an extent all superheroes, like some of the most flamboyant creatures in fashion, are playing a role inadvertently thrust on them by circumstance, their true identities and physical shortcomings concealed. What separates the nerdish Bruce Banner, who morphs into the Incredible Hulk, from the mousy Luisa Annan, who as the outlandish Marchesa Casati aspired to look like a wild animal and for one Belle Époque-era ball wore a necklace of live, writhing snakes? The answer is nothing. They each make their claim on the world by becoming Another. The ideas that dominate fashion — identity, performance, gender, body shapes, sexuality, logos and the quest for state-of-the-art materials — pretty well describe the world of the superhero." (Cathy Horyn)


Super Heroes - Fashion and Fantasy

Superheroes / Metropolitan Museum of Art

Superheroes, Super Designs. Marc Karimzadeh. WWD. 05.02.08. 

excerpted text:

“Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” which officially opens its doors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute next Wednesday, offers a look at how fashion has interpreted superhero iconography both literally and metaphorically, and an almost comic-worthy show layout peppered with real action figures that could appeal to a democratic range of museum visitors.

"Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, who put the exhibit together with the support of curator in charge Harold Koda, said the theme for the exhibit evolved from his initial, more literal approach five years ago. He was inspired to take the different route after reading Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” which gave a metaphorical slant to the theme. Chabon has contributed an essay on Unitard Theory in the show’s accompanying book." (Marc Karimzadeh)

“We began talking about superheroes as a metaphor, and this idea how clothing can transform, or help maintain the same identity,how the superhero is the overarching metaphor for fashion, because both share this obsession with the body, identity and transformation.” (Andrew Bolton)