The New York museum will trace how designers rework familiar clothes and materials, from jeans and T-shirts to paper and metal.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a Costume Institute exhibition about the clothes and materials people encounter every day. The show, extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday, will open at The Met Fifth Avenue on May 9, 2027, and run through January 9, 2028.
The exhibition will draw from the Costume Institute’s collection, alongside loans and recent acquisitions. It will look at what designers change when they take a garment with a familiar use and alter its scale, construction or material. A T-shirt may be the starting point even when the finished piece takes the proportions of an evening gown.
What happens to a familiar silhouette
One section, Familiar Forms, will group pieces by the kind of clothing they reinterpret. The museum lists jeans, hoodies, biker jackets, trench coats and puffers among its examples. Vogue reported that a T-shirt gown from Vetements’ spring 2024 collection will be among the works in that section.
Showing garments alongside other versions of the same type gives visitors a way to compare specific decisions. A designer can retain the recognisable collar or sleeve of a coat while changing the weight of its fabric or its proportions enough to alter how it sits on the body.
Paper, plastic and the value of reuse
The second main section, Common Matter, turns to ordinary materials and objects. The Met says paper, plastic and metal will feature in the show, with recycling and reuse connecting the two sections. The exhibition will also look at how wear and care can give an object meaning over time.
The Met Gala, the Costume Institute’s annual fundraiser, is scheduled for May 3, 2027. The exhibition opens to the public six days later in Gallery 099 and is included with regular museum admission.
Sources
The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Costume Institute announcement
The Metropolitan Museum of Art — exhibition dates and admission
