Man and Machine Join Forces at Met’s Fashion Exhibit
A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art examines the intersection between the handmade and the machine-made.
“Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology" features around 150 couture and ready-to-wear pieces that highlight how technology has always been an integral part of fashion.
Véronique Hyland, senior fashion editor for New York Magazine, said the show was reported on as the Met’s tech show.
“But it’s really more about the hand and the machine as continuous processes that are going on throughout fashion history,” she said. “So even the needle as one point was considered a new piece of technology.”
Hyland said the showstopper is a wedding dress by Karl Lagerfeld that looks handmade but actually made use of technology. Lagerfeld hand sketched the design — which was then printed. The rhinestones on the train were heat transferred with a machine.
"There are all these little details that look very handmade and very couture but were accomplished with a machine," she said.
Hyland spoke WNYC's All Things Considered host Jami Floyd.
