Top U.S. couture collector Sandy Schreier to be the subject of fall Met exhibition

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jul 24, 2019

The refined taste of one of America’s top couture collectors is set to come to life as part of The Met Costume Institute's fall 2019 exhibition.

The presentation will shine a spotlight on Sandy Schreier, a renowned fashion historian and couture collector, who has donated 165 items from her private collection to the museum, as part of The Met's 2020 Collections Initiative celebrating the Museum's 150th anniversary.

'In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection' will bring 80 of these items to the public, ranging from fashion illustrations dating from a 1908 pochoir album, 'Les Robes de Paul Poiret', to a 2004 Philip Treacy hat.

"Featuring promised gifts from the pioneering collector, ‘In Pursuit of Fashion’ will explore how Schreier amassed a trove of 20th-century French and American couture and ready-to-wear—not as a wardrobe, but as an appreciation of a form of creative expression,” the museum wrote in an Instagram post announcing the exhibition. 

'In Pursuit of Fashion' was curated by Wendy Yu Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton and associate curator Jessica Regan.

Schreier, an octogenarian and a native of Detroit, owns over 15,000 items of pristinely kept couture clothing, including items worn by Twiggy and Rita Hayworth and pieces from Fortuny, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior, Jeanne Lanvin and Schiaparelli.

Previously, Schreier has lent pieces from her collection to the Met for its spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition, ‘Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations’ and curated the exhibit 'Chic to Chic' at The Detroit Institute of Arts.

Outside of New York, pieces from her collection have been exhibited at The Louvre, The Hermitage, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and The Art Institute of Chicago. She is the co-author of 'Hollywood Dressed & Undressed: A Century of Cinema Style' with Bette Midler, as well as the author of 'Hollywood Gets Married'.

In addition, she has worked as a stylist for theater and film, and designed the costumes for 60s American singing group The Supremes, as well as accessories for Yves Saint Laurent. 

'In Pursuit of Fashion' will be shown in the Anna Wintour Costume Center beginning on November 27 and running through May 17 of 2020.