The Met: an exhibition on mourning attire

"Death Becomes Her": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute in New York has borrowed the film title for its new exhibition dedicated to mourning attire and exploring the links between fashion and mourning.

The exhibition opened on Tuesday in the newly renovated and renamed Anna Wintour Costume Center.

From the black taffeta dress worn by Queen Victoria (1837-1901) to the French sequin dresses of her daughter in-law, Queen Alexandra, the small exhibition explores the links between mourning and fashion.

Through a few dozen ensembles of dresses, jewellery, hats and newspapers of the time, the exhibition retraces an era when Europeans and Americans had to conform to the rigid standards in place when it came to mourning.

But not everything about the exhibition is sad. Entitled "Death Becomes Her
A Century of Mourning Attire", it also tells the story of a dashing young widow liberated from the obligations of marriage and thereafter coveted by other men.

"Black is seductive, and young widows, alive and in the flesh, with their mischievous smile and glance under their black veils are very seductive," visitors can read in an American book about decorum in 1855.

"For many women, it was a way of expressing their emotions, they really felt that their mourning clothes translated their internal grief," explains Assistant Curator Jessica Regan.

Others complained about the monotony, or the cost of an entirely black wardrobe, which could slowly give way to monochromatic grey and mauve pieces, once the grief had started to subside.

More opulent satins, taffetas and velvet could be worn later on, but were considered too lavish for the initial mourning period.

The exhibition wouldn't be complete without a dress from 1894-95 owned by Queen Victoria, the most famous widow of the 19th century, who mourned the death of her husband for 40 years.

The most impressive dresses are the ones worn by her daughter in-law Queen Alexandra, in mauve and black silk, with sequins, made in 1902 and worn the year after Queen Victoria's death.

Organised in chronological order, with dresses dating from 1815 to 1915, a large part of the presentations come from the Costume Institute's own collection. Two outfits from Scotland are on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The American mourning tradition was largely inspired by England, which itself followed the Royal Court. Mourning could last two years for a husband, one year for a parent, and six months for a brother or sister.

It was also a century in which mourning became more in fashion, a sign of sophistication and elegance, with blank dye being expensive.

A completely different world than today.

"I think that for our generation death is extremely discreet," explains Harold Koda, the Institute's Curator.

"We live in an era where we haven't had (...) a crisis in which we have lost a large amount of people that we know," he emphasises. "It just hasn't happened."

The exhibition runs through February 1st.