Guide to PUNK: Chaos to Couture by Hack the Met

PUNK: Chaos to Couture

Last month, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened PUNK: Chaos to Couture, the latest exhibition brought to you by the museum’s Costume Institute. Here’s your Hack the Met guide to all you need to know about the show!

FAST FACTS

The chic and very British Andrew Bolton

OUR FAVORITES

Example: this little Versace number made for Elizabeth Hurley in 1994.
NOTE: This dress has its own Wikipedia page, it’s that iconic.
A Fall 2009 McQueen dress in the exhibition as it appeared on the runway

Guido Palau’s wigs featured in Vogue’s May 2013 issue

CRITIQUE

WARNING: This might rip the Met a new one, we LOVE the place but we also love to critique it!

There are few things less punk than the Met, let’s take that as a starting point.

Hack The Met= sort of punk

The Met= at best, punk in an Avril Lavigne sort of way

SO PUNK

Our thoughts:

The original CBGB bathroom before it closed in 2006
(compare this to the one on display when you visit the exhibition)

NOT THE SAME
The cover for God Save The Queen

 

SUMMARY

Despite its flaws, the show is really worth seeing. It’s a multisensory jolt most museums avoid like the plague and the works are mindblowing. You’ll leave wishing you could D.I.Y. something half as chic as some of the works on display. If there’s one sentiment that comes through the show it’s that you can do a LOT with a little, if McQueen can turn Glad bags into THAT…

To keep this truly “Hack the Met,” if you want one smartass thing to say about the show next time you’re out for drinks and it comes up, use one of these:

IN DEFENSE:

“You have to consider the exhibition in the context of the Costume Institute, one of the museum’s 21 mini-museums that aims to honor the traditions of high dress. The show isn’t about punk so much as how it has had such profound, albeit unintentional, impact on high fashion of the last forty years.”

TO HATE ON IT:

SEE ABOVE (Mark likes to hate on things) 😉

To wrap things up, here’s a (somewhat) relevant little gem: