THE MET
Now On View
Costume Art
EXHIBITION
Fukuko Ando’s works of art are exhibited at Costume Art. Three dresses are donated to the museum and become part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s collection.
Blood
Red dress, sheer, thin red silk fabric
Blood / 2006
The dress in the center is my work.
Fabric cut on the bias, formed into tubular cords, and fabric cut on the bias into 3cm strips.
These are draped over the body to create an arabesque pattern of intersecting cords.
That arabesque pattern is also the pattern of human DNA, which exists in an invisible form within the blood.
Red Line X / 1996 – 2026
A piece that was donated but not included in this exhibition.
Blue shibori-dyed cotton with red silk.
Created in 1996 for my first fashion show in Paris.
Using a patchwork technique combining cotton and sheer silk, I created a wavy three-dimensional effect with raised red embroidery in a pintuck pattern.
The red two-dimensional line serves not only as a design element but also as a component that shapes the three-dimensional silhouette.
For this occasion in 2026, I added a new touch to the 1996 dress.
Wing Y
A white silk satin dress
A single piece of fabric is wrapped on the bias and shaped to fit the body
using only pintucks; the gold embroidery applied over these pintucks expresses the pulsating life of a new golden light.
This dress, titled Wing Y / 2026, is newly created for this exhibition with a new consciousness, and is based on the ‘Wing Y’ model I made in 2006.
For 2026, it is as if the pulse of new light were rippling.
It stands next to a silver dress by Madame Vionnet .
My own creative journey began after encountering Vionnet’s free-spirited approach to art – fashion.
It is deeply moving to recall my visit to New York in 2000 to meet Betty Kirke, whose book on the anatomical study of Madame Vionnet’s dresses I had read in 1992.
Betty Kirke worked on costume restoration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1978 and was captivated by Madame Vionnet’s unique sense of fashion.
Without Kirke’s research, my eyes would never have been opened to the ‘microcosm and macrocosm in freedom’.
So it is truly moving to think that Vionnet’s dress and mine will be displayed side by side at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2026.
Red Line X
A piece that was donated but not included in this exhibition
Images credit: Anna-Marie Kellen/The Metropolitan Museum of Art @metmuseum @metcostumeinstitute
Costum Art
Exhibition Overview
The Costume Institute’s spring 2026 exhibition explores depictions of the dressed body across The Met’s vast collection, pairing garments with artworks to reveal the inherent relationship between clothing and the body.Focusing primarily on Western art from prehistory to the present, Costume Art presents connections between garments from The Costume Institute and objects from the Museum’s other collecting areas. Pairings between fashions and artworks will present a spectrum of connections and experiences: from the formal to the conceptual, the aesthetic to the political, the individual to the universal, the illustrative to the symbolic, and the playful to the profound. These pairings are organized into a series of thematic body types that reflect their pervasiveness and endurance through time and cultures.
Costume Art is the inaugural exhibition in the new, nearly 12,000-square-foot galleries adjacent to the Great Hall. This space will display The Costume Institute’s annual spring show and, at times, shows from the Museum’s other curatorial departments, including those that explore the intersection of fashion and art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 1002
