© The MET

The Costume Institute’s latest exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, aims to reactivate the sensory capacities of masterworks in the MET collection. For this purpose, different techniques have been used, from artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery to traditional video animation and light projections. When a clothing item becomes part of the institute’s collection, its status changes forever. What was once a vital part of a person’s life is now a motionless work of art that can no longer be worn or touched. This exhibition brings these items back to life, helping the visitor experiment them as they were originally conceived: with dynamism and life. The show features more than 200 garments and accessories spanning four centuries, and in it museumgoers are invited to smell the hats with floral motifs or touch the walls of galleries embossed with embroideries of select items.