Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion

This vibrant publication brings to life four centuries of extraordinary garments and accessories inspired by the natural world

Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion explores clothing’s complex relationship with the body through the senses, offering new ways for understanding and experiencing a garment’s inherent artistry. Engaging texts by scholars, scientists, and conservators reveal the history behind over 200 works of fashion while also addressing their fragility and ephemerality.

Exceptional new photography by Nick Knight of creations by international couturiers and design houses ― including Cristòbal Balenciaga, Thom Browne, Collina Strada, Christian Dior, Gucci, Charles James, LOEWE, Madame Grès, Thebe Magugu, Maison Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Bea Szenfeld, Philip Treacy, Iris van Herpen, Louis Vuitton, and Charles Frederick Worth ― further deepens our appreciation for each object’s sensorial integrity.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Distributed by Yale University Press

About the Author:

Andrew Bolton, OBE, has curated some of The Museum's most visited exhibitions, including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), China: Through the Looking Glass (2015), Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (2016), Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018), and Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019). He has written more than twenty books, lectures widely, and contributes to many publications. Prior to joining The Met in 2002, he worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for nine years. Born in Great Britain, Andrew earned a BA and an MA in non-Western art from the University of East Anglia. He has received several awards, including the 2015 Vilcek Prize in Fashion, the 2016 Fashion Group International Oracle Award, the 2022 CFDA Founder’s Award, and the 2023 Fashion Group International Superstar Award.