The summer season exhibits at the Met Museum's Costume Exhibit are always something of a guilty pleasure. They have little to do with fashion and even less with art. Instead, their principal raison d'être is to serve as chic backgrounds for the annual Vogue galas where television celebrities strut across the floor and sip champagne to the accompaniment of innumerable camera flashes. The emphasis is inevitably on the shows' entertainment value rather than on any educational or cultural content that might otherwise be found within them. After all, what better way for the museum to bring in the horde of tourists who otherwise wouldn't be caught dead within a mile of a work of art?
As one would expect, the current exhibit, China through the Looking Glass, is as eye catching an extravaganza as a visitor to the city could wish for. The set designs, such as the moon-viewing pavilion, are striking and well laid out though sometimes too dimly lit to properly display the fashion pieces contained within them. On video screens behind these sets are shown colorful excerpts from recent Chinese films, along with audio from their soundtracks, in a calculated attempt to create the proper atmosphere. The tactic unfortunately fails and what the viewer ends up seeing is more Hollywood than Shanghai. The museum's website tries mightily to put on this the best face it can:
"At times borrowing from Orientalist tropes, Chinese directors have perpetuated some of the misperceptions that had shaped Western fantasies of China. Aided by such cinematic representations, the comparisons and conversations in the exhibition reimagine the relationship between East and West not as one-sided mimicry but rather as a layered series of enfolded exchanges."
As far as the display of the garments themselves, very often traditional Chinese pieces from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are juxtaposed with those designed by contemporary Westerners. This does not work at all to the advantage of the Westerners; the Chinese originals created for the imperial court are invariably far superior in both concept and workmanship. The best is a late nineteenth century red mantle from the Manchu period. In contrast, the contemporary pieces with which they are paired appear frivolous. The only twenty-first century designer who can hold his own here is John Galliano. His work is not only tasteful and imaginative but at times even manages to capture something of the spirit of Chinese art. The pieces by Ralph Lauren and Yves St. Laurent seem tawdry in comparison. In general, it is the fashions from the 1920's and 1930's, such as those by Chanel, that come off best among the Western artifacts shown.
Although lip service is paid to the writings of Said (who in any event was far more concerned with the Mideast than he was with China and who had nothing at all to say about couture), the presentation is to an extent an inadvertent exercise in racial stereotyping as nearly all the Western works shown represent no more than a distorted image of an ancient civilization. These works do not use the Chinese originals as sources but instead find their inspiration in a Chinese empire that never existed anywhere but in the imaginations of Europeans and Americans obsessed with its exoticism.
If the show has a true star, it's Anna May Wong. It was probably a mistake to have shown video of so beautiful and cultured an actress at the Vogue gala. It contained a selection of scenes - including an all too brief dance sequence from the 1934 Limehouse Blues - taken from the many films in which she starred. No one ever gave the lie to the derogatory racial stereotypes of Chinese women as well as she did. She possessed a talent and intelligence that couldn't be hidden even in the hackneyed roles assigned her, and her dignity and glamour were apparent throughout.
The exhibit continues through August 16, 2015.
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