Just divine! 'Goddess' opens at the Met

Goddess. This word has conveyed — literally — significance of mythic proportions for more than two thousand years. Hera, Venus, Aphrodite. No wonder it has inspired dressmakers and couture houses since the late 18th century.

The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the way in which fashion designers — particularly 20th century fashion designers — have used classical dress in "Goddess," which will open to the public today. It includes designs by Mariano Fortuny, Madame Grès, Prada, Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler to name a few.

The main point of the exhibition is that femininity is best expressed by simple strips of fabric draped over and supported by the body, according to Harold Koda, curator in charge of The Costume Institute. Classicism — more specifically, the classical dress donned by the women of ancient Greece — has guided this aesthetic.

Koda, who organized "Goddess," decided to take a reductive approach to the exhibition after he saw Tom Ford's design that was named "Dress of the Year" by Time. Koda recounted this decision as a sort of epiphany at the press preview of the exhibition on Monday.

"I was on a plane trip," Koda said, "going to London, and I saw the international edition of Time magazine, which had on its cover a picture of the dress that was done by our sponsor, Tom. It was called the 'Dress of the Year,' and up until that point I was thinking more in terms of Madame Grès, Madeleine Vionnet, Fortuny, certainly, but when I saw this dress it just seemed to be little strips of torn chiffon draped over a mannequin. I thought this is the direction that I'm going to take because to me, after having studied the classical sculptures, I see that this is where classicalism has come."

The exhibition is organized in five cases, each with a different theme. Many of the designs are complemented by an explanation of their significance to classicism in fashion, and Ford's "Dress of the Year" is by far the most provocative. Ford designed this evening gown for the spring-summer 2002 collection of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. Brown silk chiffon is haphazardly swathed over, across and around the body of a mannequin. The accompanying text establishes the design as an important one because it set the precedent for a more primitive and almost violent classicism in couture houses. This is the design that informed Koda's vision for the exhibition, and that it is given such a paradigmatic role in the history of classical dress in fashion gives one the sense it is the design of the exhibition. Gowns Ford designed for Gucci — strikingly similar in appearance — are displayed with this one.

By no means, though, does simplicity dominate "Goddess." It would be impossible to pass by Christian Dior's evening gown — titled "Venus" — without stopping stunned. The color may be a bit boring (gray) but the rest of the gown is an entirely different matter. Seashell-like pieces are layered on top of one another and covered in opalescent sequins, rhinestones, simulated pearls and paillettes in a crescent wave pattern. The seashell motif and crescent wave patterns — as the exhibition text points out — call Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" to mind. This gown is shown with a similar Dior design titled "Junon"— after the Roman goddess Juno.

Gowns, gowns, gowns. Don't think "Goddess" is all about gowns. There is, in fact, a male mannequin in a man's tunic tucked away in the corner of the last case. Several classically inspired bathing suits, including a design by Elsa Schiaparelli, are scattered throughout the cases, too. One can read in the exhibition text that this designer "loved the possibility of astonishment in fashion," and it is not hard to believe. Her bathing suit is done in gold lamé.

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Met, said the particularly rewarding thing about the exhibition is it is the beginning of an experience one continues in the rest of the galleries at the museum. He meant the classical dress seen on the museum's sculptures and in such paintings as Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" — the Met does not own this, but the point is clear — is reflected in the designs that are the exhibition "Goddess."

Don't look to find much more gold lamé in the Met, but affinities between the Met's classical collection and the visions of these couturiers — drapery, asymmetrical lines, body-shaping harnesses and the like — abound.

Gucci and Condé Nast Publications are sponsoring the exhibition, which will run from May 1-August 3, 2003. The exhibition was assembled from The Costume Institute's permanent collection and loans from international couture houses and private collectors.

"Goddess" was also part of The Costume Institute's Benefit Gala — otherwise known as the "Party of the Year" — Monday evening. Tom Ford, the creative director of Gucci, Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of "Vogue," and Nicole Kidman chaired the benefit.