La Balade d'Amelie 
Costume Art
Across the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the human figure appears constantly, most often through the dressed body. Clothing is not only something placed on the body; it changes how people are seen and understood. It also carries meaning about identity, status, belief, and belonging across different cultures and time periods.
In Costume Art, fashion is placed at the center of the exhibition. Garments from The Costume Institute are shown alongside paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects so they can be seen in direct relation to one another.
Throughout the exhibition, clothing plays different roles: It can shape the body, change its proportions, or shift attention to certain areas. It can also conceal the body, reveal it, or fully transform its silhouette. In every case, it affects how the body is perceived.
Throughout the exhibition, clothing plays different roles: It can shape the body, change its proportions, or shift attention to certain areas. It can also conceal the body, reveal it, or fully transform its silhouette. In every case, it affects how the body is perceived.
The exhibition is organized around different ways of thinking about the body, including ideal forms, altered forms, and shared human conditions. Each section shows how clothing contributes to these distinctions. In some galleries, the body appears balanced and controlled, based on long-standing ideas of proportion and beauty. In others, it is stretched, enlarged, or modified, showing how fashion can actively change physical appearance.
Across all sections, the exhibition makes clear that clothing is not separate from the body. It is part of how the body is presented and understood.
Seen in this way, fashion is part of how images of people have been constructed across art, history, and everyday life.
By placing clothing at the center of the exhibition, Costume Art encourages visitors to reconsider something familiar: how appearance shapes understanding, and how the body is always read through what it wears.