Fashion isn’t just for the eyes: Upcoming Met Gala exhibit aims to be a multi-sensory experience

By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Fashion, most would surely agree, is meant to be seen. Not heard, and certainly not smelled. But Andrew Bolton, the curatorial mastermind behind the blockbuster fashion exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, begs to differ. His newest show, which will be launched by the starry Met Gala next month, seeks to engage not only the eyes but the ears, the nose and the fingertips. “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” features 250 items “awakened” from the institute’s vast archives. Elaborate new technologies will enable visitors to smell the scents connected to the garments, to hear how they move, even to feel the embroidery of a delicate 17th-century bodice.