Out & About

Where the Superheroic Meet the Super Fashionable

By AMANDA GORDON
May 9, 2008

The connection between the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibit "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" and the party by the same name, which celebrated its opening, is worth examining.

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Not that guests at the party Monday night had the optimal opportunity to do so. Among the distractions were liquor, the desire to socialize, celebrity spotting, a Temple of Dendur filled with plastic forms resembling ice crystals, and a meal featuring a "Spider Web" appetizer (a fettuccine nest filled with caviar), "Iron Man Tagliata di Manzo" for the main course (sliced beef served with seven different vegetables), and chocolate-filled "Dark Knight Desserts."

But, before 750 guests could get to dinner, or even cocktails, they had to at least walk through the exhibit. The red carpet very deliberately set the path.

How many people stopped at the entrance to the exhibit to read the introductory wall text? I have no idea. I was not at the party (working press are not allowed inside, and so I attended the 25th anniversary of the Joyce Theater and the 50th anniversary of the Paperbag Players, where I had full access to the events).

However, when I read that text carefully, on a quiet afternoon Wednesday, the first day the exhibit was open to the public, I had a strong reaction.

Here is what I copied down into my reporter's notebook:

"Through fashion and the superhero, we are free to fantasize, to escape the banal, the ordinary, the quotidian."

POW! SHAZAM!

That's what the party was all about: the freedom to fantasize, escape the banal, the ordinary, and the quotidian. But it was certainly not this party only. Almost every night, we in New York find parties that give us these freedoms, usually for a good cause.

So compelling are these freedoms that New Yorkers pay large amounts of money to attend these events, again, for a good cause and a tax deduction.

How much do fashion and the superhero have to do with this phenomenon? Well, it can be said that New York in particular is full of people both superheroic and fashionable for their stalwart presence on the gala circuit. It can also be said that New York is full of fashionable people without much heroism, and that there are superheroes here without much fashion sense. It takes all kinds to keep Gotham going.

On this night, a few of the superheroic and fashionable deserve mention: Edith de Montebello, the wife of Philippe de Montebello, the museum's outgoing director, came to the party with spider webs drawn on her arm by a grandchild. Blaine Trump arrived in an outfit, and with heavy makeup, reminiscent of Cat Woman, and with one of her dearest friends, Linda Carter, who famously played Wonder Woman, and wore the bangle to prove it. One woman arrived with a golden bow and arrow, harkening to Diana the Huntress. Mr. de Montebello himself noted that the inspirations for super hero characters captured in the Costume Exhibit can be found in the Greek and Roman galleries.

This event raised nearly $7.3 million for the Costume Institute, the department at the Metropolitan Museum that collects, studies, and mounts exhibits on fashion.

agordon@nysun.com

Note: the accompanying photos were taken by Don Pollard and provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.