John Galliano for House of Dior, fall/winter 1997-98

Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion

This exhibition, presented in the Museum’s Chinese Galleries and Anna Wintour Costume Center, will explore how China has fueled the creative imagination for centuries, resulting in layers of cultural translations, retranslations, and mistranslations. High fashion will be juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, as well as Chinese films, to reveal ongoing dialogues between East and West, past and present.

John Galliano for House of Dior, fall/winter 1997-98

From the earliest period of European contact with China in the sixteenth century, the West has been enchanted with enigmatic objects and imagery from the East, providing inspiration for fashion designers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent. 

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The exhibition will feature more than one hundred examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear alongside Chinese art. Filmic representations of China will be incorporated throughout to reveal how our visions of China are framed by narratives that draw upon popular culture, and also to recognize the importance of cinema as a medium through which to understand the richness of Chinese history.

Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, fall/winter 2004-5

The Anna Wintour Costume Center‘s Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery will present a series of “whispers,” or conversations through time and space, focusing on Imperial China; Nationalist China and Communist China, with an emphasis on changing images of Chairman Mao. Above the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the Chinese Galleries on the second floor will showcase fashion from the 1700s to the present.

more. www.metmuseum.org