The most striking part of the cinematic exhibition of historic American fashion in the period rooms of the Met is surely Thom Ford's reimagining the 1973 "Battle of Versailles" between of French and American design as a freeze frame fight movie in the panorama room. Other rooms curated by other film directors offer other more domestic moods. But I was most taken, probably unsurprisingly, by Chloe Zhao's unflashy imagining of Shaker leader Ann Lee as a levitating Christ figure, surrounded by figures in Claire McCardell's sober, practical "monastic" and "cloister" dresses.
The Shakers believed that God is both male and female, and their religious leader was a woman, Mother Ann Lee, whom they believed was the Second Coming of Christ in female form. This aspect of the Shaker religion was incredibly radical and progressive in the 1800s. Upon seeing this room and its occupants, most people from that era would feel unease, confusion, conker, curiosity, shock, or even distaste and anger. I hope to invoe some these feelings in you ...
