Karla Welch: The Met Gala's Canadian Connection Dressing Celebrities for the Red Carpet

The Metropolitan Museum is in full bloom, due in no small part to the Costume Institute‘s new exhibit ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.’

The 2024 exhibit is a testament to the transformation and ties between the past and present, symbolized through nature. It showcases a curation of archival and contemporary pieces from brands including Alexander McQueen, Dior, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, Marni, Thom Browne, Schiaparelli, and many more.

All exhibits are themed according to organic life, with displays ranging from birds and marine life to foliage, shells, insects, and arrays of flowers. The concept is one that Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge, The Costume Institute, crafted when pondering fashion’s connection to the human senses.

Bolton shares, “When an item of clothing enters our collection, its status is changed irrevocably. What was once a vital part of a person’s lived experience is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled.”

“The exhibition endeavours to reanimate these artworks by re-awakening their sensory capacities through a diverse range of technologies, affording visitors sensorial ‘access’ to rare historical garments and rarefied contemporary fashions.”

“By appealing to the widest possible range of human senses, the show aims to reconnect with the works on display as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, with dynamism, and ultimately with life.”

CONNECTING THROUGH NATURE

The ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ exhibition features approximately 250 opulent, well-restored garments and accessories that are connected visually through nature.

On entering the exhibition, a sequence of self-contained galleries is organized into three sections, focused on earth, air, and water.

One gallery, arranged as a garden, includes a glass greenhouse displaying hats blooming with various flowers and surrounded by subtle ‘smell-scapes’ that challenge olfactory expectations. The show takes advantage of life’s sensory capacities. Throughout the exhibit, there are aromatic histories of hats bearing floral motifs; galleries’ walls are embossed with select garments’ embroidery; soft voices read poetry and stories, and birds chirp.

While preparing for the exhibit, sewing artisans needed to mend some clothes, accessories, and other garments from various periods. Some galleries feature actual ‘sleeping beauties’—gowns lying flat on the floors in vignettes—so fragile that they can no longer be used to dress mannequins.

“The Met’s innovative spring 2024 Costume Institute exhibition pushes the boundaries of your imagination and invites you to experience the multisensory facets of a garment, many of which get lost when entering a museum collection as an object,” said Max Hollein, the Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO.

“‘Sleeping Beauties’ will heighten our engagement with these masterpieces of fashion by evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell, and interact when being worn, ultimately offering a deeper appreciation of the integrity, beauty, and artistic brilliance of the works on display.”

The section of the exhibit includes creations by couture foundation designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hattie Carnegie, Lilly Daché, Hubert de Givenchy, Deirdre Hawken, Stephen Jones, Guy Laroche, Madame Pauline, Mainbocher, Elsa Schiaparelli, Sally Victor, and others.

Incredibly, a coat by Jonathan Anderson for LOEWE has been planted with oat, rye, and wheat grass that will start alive and gradually die during the exhibition.

Two examples of Charles James‘ ‘Butterfly’ ball gown—one in pristine condition, the other a ‘sleeping beauty’ with extensive damage—demonstrate a rare instance of duplicates in the collection.

CANADIAN CONNECTION

Originally from Powell River, Karla Welch is an internationally renowned stylist, activist, and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. She dressed seven influential personalities for this year’s red carpet – Eve Hewson, Sarah Paulson, Karlie Kloss, Greta Gerwig, Adwoa, Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso.

Known for her ‘edgy classicist’ fashion sensibility, Karla also incorporates elements of grunge, punk, and skater style inspired by her upbringing on the West Coast in the 1990s, where she spent many hours indulging in the only high-fashion television available at the time – ‘Fashion File’ by Tim Blanks.

As a young woman, Karla left behind working at her father’s men’s wear store, moved to Vancouver, attended and then dropped out of college to become the sommelier-trained manager of the renowned Vij’s Indian restaurant on Cambie Street.

Met Gala, New York, Power River, Karla Welch, Luxury Fashion, Vancouver, Canada, Helen Siwak, portfolio, yvr — Karla Welch

Karla’s editorial work appears in Citizen K, Numéro, BlackBook, Teen Vogue, Vogue, Rolling Stone, W, Nylon, Vanity Fair, InStyle, and more.

Her advertising and consulting clients include Tiffany, Forevermark, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Gemfields, Cole Haan, Apple, Max Mara, Nike, Adidas, and J Brand.

Her list of celebrity clients is extensive, including Karlie Kloss, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Paulson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Amber Heard, Elisabeth Moss, and, one of her first serious clients and the fashionably iconic – Justin Bieber. Karla also founded and created the clothing brand xKarla with Hanes, the WISHI online styling platform, and, most recently, The Period Company.

The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times have recognized Karla Welch as one of the world’s ‘Most Powerful’ stylists.

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Luxury Lifestyle Observer: Helen Siwak is the founder of EcoLuxLuv Marketing & Communications Inc and publisher of Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, PORTFOLIOY.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, and digital women's lifestyle magazine EcoLuxLifestyle.co. She is a prolific content creator, consultant, and marketing and media strategist within the ecoluxury lifestyle niche. Post-pandemic, she has worked with many small to mid-sized plant-based/vegan brands to build their digital foundations and strategize content creation and business development. Helen is the west coast correspondent to Canada’s top-read industry magazine Retail-Insider, holds a vast freelance portfolio, and consults with many of the world’s luxury heritage brands. Always seeking new opportunities and challenges, you can email her at helen@ecoluxluv.com.

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