All art seeks an audience, but fashion thrives on it. A fabulous dress needs to be seen by dozens of eyes that covet it — or despise it. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute taps into the fashion world’s need to judge (and be judged) with the new exhibit “blog. mode: addressing fashion.”

The exhibit includes 65 pieces from the Met’s collection of costumes and accessories. The objects span an enormous range of time and culture — from a red wool British waistcoat, circa 1730, to a ruffled gown by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci’s spring/summer 2007 collection. During the course of the exhibit, which runs until April 13, visitors to the Met’s Web site — and its “blogbar” installed for the show — will be able to post comments about selected items. A new costume or accessory will be posted periodically, giving viewers the chance to have their say and to comment on the views expressed by others. The exhibition room contains eight computers that are dedicated to the Met’s Web log, where visitors can post reactions to the day’s item directly.

The concept is a good one for the Met. It turns fashion’s natural hunger for reaction — the eye-rolling, the salivating, even the disdain — into a way of engaging people with the museum experience, be it in person or online. As the exhibit’s wall text states: “Individuals who might avoid publicly commenting on a canvas by Picasso or a bronze by Brancusi readily disclose their thoughts about a gown by Galliano or a mule by Blahnik.”

As in real life, fashion is always better in person. Looking at the images online will do, but seeing this exhibit within the Costume Institute’s gallery is something else entirely. It is unlikely, for instance, that a digital image of the French bonnet (1830-35) will appear online as magnificent as it is in person. Lavishly decorated, the delicate bonnet is a confection in ivory silk satin. Egret and duck feathers decorate its tiered construction. Two strands of beautiful sheer ribbon hang down from a piece of headwear the likes of which is only seen in replica as part of period films. To see such a delicate example of true finery is rare; even though time was not kind to the materials, this bonnet is exceptionally beautiful. It’s the kind of piece that sends you into daydreams about horse-drawn carriages, court life, and the lack of indoor plumbing.

Though items such as the bonnet deserve to be seen in the gallery, there are pieces that will show up with colossal exuberance whether they are placed under glass, on-screen, or on the moon. Yves Saint Laurent’s floor-length coat in yellow silk faille is a true illustration of the 1980s. Created as part of the Yves Saint Laurent fall-winter 1983–84 collection, it billows and folds with elegant drama. It perfectly recalls the era of Nan Kempner, which should give the bloggers plenty to chat about. Among the more surprising pieces is a 1922 Chanel dress covered in a heavy red-and-black embroidered print inspired by folkloric Russia — which is not typically thought of as Chanel’s signature look. “It looks so uncharacteristic of Chanel because it’s so decorated,” the curator of the exhibition, Harold Koda, said.

When the Met acquired this piece, the curators believed that the embroidery was done by hand at the Kitmir embroidery firm of the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, the sister of the Grand Duke Dmitri, who was Chanel’s lover at the time. When the current head designer of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, inspected the piece for a Met exhibit, he took one look and declared the work machine-made. Such a discovery could have meant that the piece was a fake; embroidery at that time and place would have been made by hand. Through research, the curators found that Chanel had purchased three sewing machines for the firm, so that the grand duchess could have her embroideries made faster. The shift suggests Chanel’s modern thinking, according to the curators. “This subordination of the value of handiwork where it provided no additional aesthetic value may be seen as a manifestation of Chanel’s business-like approach to fashion: Decorative appeal had its own rationalization, whether in fake jewelry or folkloric embroideries.”

The exhibit includes a small grouping of sexy stuff, including a pair of thigh-high fetish boots by Maniatis Bottier and a wooden corset by Hussein Chalayan. But what really makes items like these come alive is when they’re placed on a model who is vamping within an inch of her life. Behind glass, they seem flat, but they may spark discussion online.

As an exhibit, “blog.mode: addressing fashion” has extraordinary pieces of clothing to see. And as an experiment in interactivity, the project is a worthy step forward. What’s most important here, however, is that the Met is examining the duality of modern life: the virtual versus the physical. Many pieces in the gallery may look unimpressive online. They may spark little discussion. And the pieces that your eye passes over while in the gallery may turn out to be the talk of the blog. It’s fitting that the museum has chosen to explore this duality with an exhibition of fashion, which, as the curators write, “is an immediate expression of our zeitgeist.”

http://blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode