HYPERALLERGIC
By Kristi Upson-Saia
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| Installation view of Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination in the Medieval Sculpture Hall (all photos © the Metropolitan Museum of Art unless indicated otherwise)
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The 70th annual Met Gala once again exceeded expectations for over-the-top fashion, spectacle, and pageantry. As a historian of early Christianity with a specialty in religious dress, I think that Christians of the past would praise the Met organizers, curators, and designers for highlighting the role dress has played in the history of Christianity, while — along with contemporary religious critics — snubbing the Met for particular choices that indeed would have offended their religious sensibilities.On the one hand, early Christians would agree with the Met exhibition and gala organizers about the importance of dress as a primary mode through which individuals have long expressed their religious identity, commitment, and piety. [
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| Installation view of Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination in the Medieval Sculpture Hall |
