Who knew mourning could be an art form? On Tuesday, October 21, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will fete Halloween the best way it knows how—with a new exhibit entitled “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire.” The show will highlight 30-plus pieces of 19th- and early 20th-century garments worn during bereavement. Keep your eyes out for the exhibit’s magnum opus—the grieving gowns of both Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra.
“The predominantly black palette of mourning dramatizes the evolution of period silhouettes and the increasing absorption of fashion ideals into this most codified of etiquettes,” said Curator in Charge Harold Koda in an official press release. “The veiled widow could elicit sympathy as well as predatory male advances. As a woman of sexual experience without marital constraints, she was often imagined as a potential threat to the social order.”
This deliciously dark exhibit will be on display at the Met’s Anna Wintour Costume Center from October 21, 2014 to February 1, 2015.
