When celebrities turned out for this year’s Met Gala Ball in New York, tightly wrapped in coloured silks and furs, they were not only celebrating an academic collaboration between the Costume Institute and the Asian Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but following a centuries-old tradition: cultural appropriation.
From the delicately painted blue and white porcelain that inspired countless 18th-century Willow pattern plates to embroidered imperial robes and figure-hugging qipao dresses that have inspired contemporary fashion designers, China has long had a hold over the western imagination. It’s this fascination that provided the wellspring for the Met’s latest exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass.
The show examines the influence of imperial, nationalistic and communist fashions; of Chinese art forms such as calligraphy, porcelain and pottery; the by-now familiar tropes of the ‘exotic’ portrayed in early films starring Anna May Wong and, later, on the imaginations of film makers like Bernardo Bertollucci and Wong Kar Wai. And last, but by no means least, its galleries display creations by some of fashion biggest names next to the beautiful objects that moved them.
• China: Through the Looking Glass is on show at the Met in New York until August 15 www.metmuseum.org
