At the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s annual spring exhibition staged by the Costume Institute, the mannequins ceased being simple mannequins some time ago. For 2025\u2019s \u201cSuperfine: Tailoring Black Style,\u201d artist Tanda Francis modeled the mannequins\u2019 features after Andr\u00e9 Grenard Matswa, one of the original Sapeurs; and parts of \u201cSleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion\u201d dispensed with silhouettes altogether, displaying the show\u2019s most fragile garments in coffin-like vitrines.<\/p>\n
For \u201cCostume Art,\u201d<\/a> curator Andrew Bolton has once again aligned the exhibition\u2019s central concerns\u2014in this case, how art and fashion have interpreted the human body\u2014with the very manner in which the objects are displayed. Visitors to the Cond\u00e9 M. Nast Galleries this year will see some of the fashion in \u201cCostume Art\u201d on silhouettes based on nine very real people, spanning a range of body types and mobilities.<\/p>\n The mannequins\u201425 in all\u2014are distributed across two of the show\u2019s 12 thematic sections, each organized around a body type or aesthetic. One of them, the \u201cDisabled Body\u201d section, features mannequins styled after Sin\u00e9ad Burke, the writer and founder of Tilting the Lens<\/a>; athlete Aimee Mullins; model and musician Aariana Rose Philip; model and Freedom Is Fly<\/a> founder Antwan Tolliver; and model and swimwear designer Sonia Vera. The section also includes one mannequin based on imagery of the late drag performer Goddess Bunny.<\/p>\n Photo: Anna-Marie Kellen\/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n In the \u201cCorpulent Body\u201d section, meanwhile, are forms based on models Jade O\u2019Belle and Charlie Reynolds, along with artist and couturier Michaela Stark, and singer-songwriter Yseult. The nine living inspirations for the mannequins submitted to a 3D-scanning process known as photogrammetry to have their likenesses recreated for \u201cCostume Art.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/69f8df9465602319e21b089c\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/13.%2520CorpulentBody.jpg\"\/)
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