The History of the Costume Institute

Speranza

In 2000 the fashion takeover of the Metropolitan Museum of Art seemed complete when a show featuring CHANEL was announced, to be paid for by the brand and guest curated not by curators but by CHANEL's designer, Karl Lagerfeld, who communicated with the Metropolitan Museum through a friend, Ingrid Sischy, then editor of INTERVIEW.

Worst in many minds, the show would be staged NOT IN THE BASEMENT where the Institute operatoes, but in the IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR GALLERIES, steps from the museum's Italian paintings!

But shortly after the CHANEL show was announced, Montebello abruptly cancelled it.