Over at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute (the one with a wing named after Anna Wintour), a new record has been set. China: Through the Looking Glass has just become the museum’s most attended exhibition ever, stripping Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty of the title – one which it has held since the show closed in 2011.
The China show, which has been extended until September 7, has (as of Sunday afternoon) attracted 671,234 visitors, surpassing the Alexander McQueen retrospective, which attracted 661,509. Curated by Andrew Bolton, who was also responsible for Savage Beauty, Through the Looking Glass explores the influence of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion, exhibiting 140 examples of haute couture and ready-to-wear alongside Chinese art.
Opening in May, the exhibition was inaugurated by a Chinese-themed Met Gala. Though fashion’s critical thinkers prepared themselves for an onslaught of culturally insensitive wardrobe choices, it wasn’t actually that bad. Rihanna stole the show, and sparked a thousand memes, with a canary yellow cape dress made by Chinese designer Guo Pei.
Of course the V&A’s Savage Beauty, which closed two weeks ago, became the most popular show in the museum’s history with 493,043 people seeing it in total during its 21-week run. In the UK, only Tate Modern’s Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs surpassed these figures – the 2014 exhibition drew some 562,622 people.
Savage Beauty arrived in London four years after closing in New York, so how long will it take for Through the Looking Glass to cross the Atlantic?
Watch “Savage Beauty In Numbers” below:
