On show at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute from the 5th May tothe 14th August 2016, the exhibition “Manus x Machina. Fashion in an Age of Technology” will focus on the dichotomy between handmade haute couture and machine-made fashion, a distinction that has become increasingly blurred in the years. This distinction between haute couture and prêt-à-porter, as explains Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute, was traditionally based on the handmade and the machine-made, but is now less clear since both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other. In the exhibition, the theme will be analysed by featuring more than one hundred pieces of fashion, both haute couture and ready-to-wear, including the designs by Alexander McQueen, Hubert de Givenchy, Coco Chanel, Issey Miyake and Raf Simons, covering over 130 years history. In addition, the exhibition will have several “in process” workshops to let the public know how these technologies work.

For more information about the exhibition, please visit MET’s Costume Institute.

Photo: Wedding ensemble, Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938) for House of Chanel (French, founded 1913), autumn/winter 2014–15 haute couture, back view; Courtesy of CHANEL Patrimoine Collection. Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope.