The 2018 Met Gala theme has officially been confirmed: The title of the Costume Institute’s much-anticipated spring exhibition is “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”
The exhibition will feature ecclesiastical fashion borrowed from the Vatican, religious art from the Met’s own collection and 150 designer garments that pay aesthetic homage to Catholicism. According to Fashionista, the exhibition will be spread over three locations: the Met’s Costume Center, its medieval galleries and further uptown at the Met Cloisters. According to The New York Times, the exhibition will be the Costume Institute’s largest exhibition to date.
“We know it could be controversial for right wing or conservative Catholics and for liberal Catholics,” curator Andrew Bolton told the Times.
President and chief executive of the Met Daniel H. Weiss said he has “confidence that the exhibition will inspire understanding, creativity and, along the way, constructive dialogue, which is precisely a museum’s role in our civil society.”
The forthcoming gala will be hosted by Amal Clooney, Rihanna and Donatella Versace.
