This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City, is not your typical fashion display. While previous exhibitions focused on visual feasts, this one delves into the realm of scent, employing the expertise of Norwegian chemist and artist Sissel Tolaas. Tolaas, based in Berlin, has carefully crafted a symphony of aromas from the very fabric of the garments themselves, inviting visitors to experience fashion in a multi-sensory way.
Tolaas spent a year meticulously studying each item, driven by a single question: “Can the information conveyed by smell molecules breathe new life into its narrative?” The concept of “reawakening” permeates the gallery, underscoring how scent enhances the exhibition’s purpose. “The ultimate goal is to inspire a shift from conventional ways of perceiving—primarily through vision—to a more sensory understanding of the world. The sense of smell’s intimate connection to emotions and memories, coupled with its neuroanatomical ties makes it a powerful and overlooked medium for understanding,” she explained in the wall label.
Tolaas devised an innovative methodology to capture smell molecules from various objects, creating a database that “replicates and reproduces the recorded smells.” For example, she detected estragole, a molecular component found in fruits and plants, in Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1937 cotton summer dress. Meanwhile, a strapless Christian Dior ball gown from 1953 revealed the presence of squalene (human skin oil) and caprolactam (nylon). Similarly, she identified synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, and acrylic in Alber Elbaz’s yellow evening dress from 2008.
“I’m focusing on literally the molecules emitting from the various items that were used by this woman: the scents of her body, her habits, her culture, her rituals, the food she ate,” Tolaas explained in an article in the May 2024 edition of American Vogue. The magazine hailed her as a “pioneer in the work of creating and working the world of smell.” She emphasized, “I’m highlighting or amplifying hidden information in the garments. I’m not perfuming spaces.” Yet, the various scents wafting through the air are undeniable – a citrus garden at dawn after a downpour, perhaps escaping through the acrylic pipes attached to the garments. Visitors can use these tubes to sniff the scents as part of the interactive experience.
The exhibition’s multi-sensory approach is further enhanced by the Met’s decision to draw from its own vast collection of over 30,000 objects, rather than borrowing from other institutions. This allowed for the inclusion of century-old garments from the archives, too delicate to be displayed on mannequins and presented flat on glass tables. Among these are the Charles James Worth ball gown adorned with intricate embroidery of sunbeams and clouds from circa 1882, the “Roseraie” evening dress by Jeanne Lanvin from 1923, and a 269-year-old floral French “Robe a la Francaise” in taffeta from an unidentified designer.
Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator-in-charge, notes in his message to visitors, “Nature, like fashion, depends on the widest sensory engagements for its fullest sensorial expressions. The comparison, however, does not end with the senses. In many ways, nature serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion, in its rebirth, renewal, and cyclicity.” This theme is evident in the exhibition’s collection, showcasing designs that draw inspiration from the natural world. Madeleine Vionnet’s handcrafted beadwork, patterned after a family of passerine songbirds, adorns a black silk tulle overdress from her autumn-winter 1939 collection, a year before the outbreak of World War II. Alexander McQueen’s orange wool twill jacket shares a similar motif, but his version of the swarm of black swallows—inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds”—is screen printed.
The sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte created a pleated sunflower dress inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings. Fully beaded garments by Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Mary Katrantzou, depicting birds and flowers, greet visitors upon entry. Notable in this concept is the “monarch” dress created by Sarah Burton during her tenure at Alexander McQueen in 2011, and Iris van Herpen’s “Nautiloid” cocktail dress with its amorphous, free-flowing silhouette. Other designers, including Olivia Cheng, Hillary Teymour, Jun Takahashi, Dries Van Noten, Ana de Pombo, and Martin Maison Margiela, showcase exquisite craftsmanship and technological advancements.
“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is open to the public until September 2, offering a unique opportunity to experience fashion through the lens of smell and engage with the rich tapestry of nature, rebirth, and renewal that permeates the world of design.
