Greek Chic

The Met's Costume Institute Celebrates Goddess Style

By CHRIS SCHMIDT

Like a scene out of "Mighty Aphrodite," goddesses are suddenly everywhere. Mannequins in the windows of Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue are decked out in flowing Grecian gowns, while modern-day goddesses Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lopez donned goddess drapery for this year's Academy Awards.

The Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute pays homage to the Grecian draped dress with the opening this Thursday of its exhibit "Goddess: The Classical Mode," which traces the look from its classical origins to 20 th-century interpretations by designers such as Madame Gres, Fortuny, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Issey Miyake.

The Costume Institute's Harold Koda, who curated the exhibit, confessed that he had had lastminute misgivings, wondering, "Is there anything really classical in the show?" A reasonable question, since no actual garments survive from antiquity; our knowledge of classical dress is filtered entirely through sculpture, painted pottery and literature.

And yet, goddess style is a thoroughly 20 th-century phenomenon. Responding to the early women's liberation and suffrage movements, designers like Paul Poiret and dancer Isadora Duncan jettisoned the corset, throwing over the traditional wasp-waisted silhouette in favor of a freer, more body-conscious style.

In the 1930s, designers Vionnet and Madame Gres elevated the Grecian look from its earlier, artsier incarnations to the realm of cool Parisian glamour. Vionnet created dresses of flowing silk that were famously cut on a diagonal bias so as to hug the body. (John Galliano's masterful updating of Vionnet's bias-cut technique is largely what launched him to the house of Dior.)

Moving far beyond a mere abandonment of the corset, Vionnet's curve-skimming creations were meant to be worn without any underwear at all. Madame Gres employed pleated drapery in more explicitly classical creations, albeit with seductive details such as cut-away shoulders and skirts slit to the waist.

With its revival, the question arises: is goddess style sexy? While some critics say that, with its pleats and flowing drapery, the g dress hides a multitude of body Mr. Koda argues that what has m the style most popular in th 1930s, 1970s, and today is its emphasis on body consciousness. Grecian dressing, without the benefit of corsetting or structured tailoring, lets the body itself dictate a garment's shape. In the end, goddess style is versatile: revealing, concealing, or doing both at once, depending on the design.

Though the exhibit includes some witty examples by Gaultier and Galliano in which images of Greek statuary are actually printed or airbrushed onto gowns, more variety and imagination in the curator's choices would have been welcome. Issey Miyake's 1984 Waterfall dresses are given a prominent position in the exhibit, but clothing from Mr. Miyake's more casual Pleats Please collection -- essentially modern riffs on Fortuny's iconic Delphos column gown from 190 is notably absent. Does every pi on display have to be an even gown fit for a movie star or social

And then, there's the persist problem of the Costume Institu limited space. Considering amount of hoopla surrounding exhibit and its attendant god themed Benefit Gala, which was last night, it seems a shame to cr many mannequins into a few s rooms.

That sentiment was palpable the press preview, where one museum patron groused to another, "I wonder how all thes goddesses feel about being banished to the basement?"