AT THE COSTUME INSTITUTE, COUTURE MEETS TECHNOLOGY

By ROBERTA SMITH

From left, two evening dresses created decades apart — 1968 and circa 1935 — by the French designer Madame Grès (a.k.a. Alix Barton), alongside a 2010 ensemble by Iris van Herpen.CreditJake Naughton for The New York Times

Sometimes fashion is art, sometimes it is just stuff to wear. Other times it is mind-boggling craft and exquisite technique whose aesthetic strangeness can render the art question moot.

That’s the effect of “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” the latest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual fashion extravaganzas from its Costume Institute, and one distinguished by a lack of Met Gala-style hoopla. It celebrates the luxury wares of mostly French fashion houses, but brings fresh focus to the convergence of traditional haute couture and high-end ready-to-wear. A new closeness has emerged, partly through a shared reliance on intricate tech-savvy processes. The exhibition is sponsored by Apple — perhaps an improvement over the often-too-cozy patronage of fashion houses — and comes at a time when a few tech companies are edging into fashion with their own athleisure lines.

The show is unusually thoughtful — a stately, gorgeous tutorial. Encompassing 170 ensembles and dresses, it examines how haute couture, long associated with impeccably handmade garments tailored to individual clients, is increasingly integrating breakthroughs in technologies and materials. Technology (machina) is not replacing the hand (manus); rather, the two are collaborating as never before, stimulating innovation and expression.

This is evidenced by an assortment of dresses, several of them by the imaginative Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, that border on sculpture in their form and lack of function. The often complex joinings of forces are spelled out in labels where various kinds of handwork mingle with references to 3-D printing, laser this and laser that, ultrasonic welding and custom software-rendered patterns.

As these extravaganzas go, “Manus x Machina” is exceptional, its clarity and serenity distinguishing it from quite a few of its predecessors at the Costume Institute. It was organized by Andrew Bolton, who became its head curator in January, with the retirement of the widely respected Harold Koda.

Mr. Bolton has always aimed high, often guided by a flair for showmanship. He has risked failure and, at times, been its victim. He was responsible for the finely honed spectacle of the Alexander McQueen retrospective in 2011 and the ambitious but flawed “China: Through the Looking Glass” last year. But he has also organized exercises in frenetic vacuity like “AngloMania,” “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” and the overreaching “Punk: Chaos to Couture.”

With “Manus x Machina,” Mr. Bolton is in fine form: over the top, but with a dignity and restraint more typical of his predecessor, especially in Mr. Koda’s last major exhibition, an examination of Charles James’s wonderfully architectural garments.

Mr. Bolton’s show is structured according to six of the métiers — or trades — of dressmaking that are as essential to couture today as they were in the mid-18th-century, when Diderot’s encyclopedia formalized their tools and processes. (The pertinent volumes are on view.)

The métiers here progress from embroidery and featherwork, through artificial flowers, pleating, lace and leatherwork. Métiers have usually been handled by outside specialists famous in their own right, among them Maison Lesage (embroidery), Maison Sophie Hallette (lace) andMaison Lemarié (feather and leatherwork).

The show also includes a section titled “Tailleur & Flou,” or tailoring and dressmaking, the traditional divisions within a couture house. Here you’ll also find toiles, or muslins — prototypes used in early stages of the design process. Included are both actual muslins and irreverent contemporary garments inspired by them, from designers like Martin Margiela, John Galliano for Dior and Alber Elbaz for Lanvin.

“Manus x Machina” occupies the two-story Robert Lehman Wing — a new location in the Met for Costume Institute shows. It is blissfully low-tech. A few short videos on tiny screens allow glimpses at the designers or artisans at work. The show’s only soundtrack is Brian Eno’s soothing, slightly ecclesiastical “An Ending (Ascent),” which is almost certain to enhance concentration.

A Sarah Burton dress for Alexander McQueen, 2012.CreditJake Naughton for The New York Times

So will the exhibition’s wonderfully understated gallery treatments conceived by Shohei Shigematsu, who leads the New York office of Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture, in collaboration with the Met’s design department.

The clothes are set against white cotton backdrops that sharpen their colors. In addition to lining the walls, this muslinlike fabric is used for scrims that form arched niches and domes, transforming the space into a glowing, abstract cathedral.

A false floor has also been built across the Lehman’s atrium, creating a central gallery, an interesting precedent that other museums saddled with uninspiring spaces might study.

The train of “Wedding Ensemble,” by Karl Lagerfeld, for House of Chanel.CreditJake Naughton for The New York Times

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/arts/design/review-at-the-costume-institute-couture-meets-technology.html?_r=0