Daphne Guinness to Dress for Met Gala in Barneys Window
Daphne Guinness is planning to put on quite the show for the Met Costume Institute Gala this May.
The fashion muse has announced via her Vogue column that she will honor this year's theme, "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty," by dressing and getting ready for the event inside a Barneys New York window display. Peeping Toms, stake your position.
Part public art exhibit, part tribute to her late friend Alexander McQueen, Guinness's daring project was the brainchild of new Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman and will be one element of a six-week installation with the retailer.
"To my considerable astonishment [I] found myself agreeing to his exciting but giddying proposition to hand over the windows of Barneys for a six-week run starting May 2 to showcase pieces from my own collection that have special resonance for me (Daphne Guinness: Nothing for Sale?!)," the heiress writes.
"What was I thinking? As the crowning moment of the installation, I will be getting dressed and readied for the Costume Institute Gala in the windows—me as performance art! I am hoping that my costume (McQueen, of course) will fit."
The windows will also feature a selection of clothes once owned by McQueen pal Isabella Blow, who committed suicide in 2007. Guinness stopped an auction of the former Tatler editor's covetable wardrobe by purchasing the lot herself.
"I feel this fits with the zeitgeist of what is happening in New York in early May," Guinness says of the Blow presentation, which will be aided by milliner Philip Treacy and other close friends.
"Isabella certainly would have wanted to celebrate Alexander at the Met. And similarly, Alexander would have been mortified by her absence from it. So it feels like the right thing to do. The rapid pace with which this has all happened has made me question my sanity, as I am currently knee-deep in life and other projects, but you might as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb! Why not add on another layer?"
After all, what are friends for?
Speaking of bold window displays, the McQueen shop's bride-and-groom mannequins are fueling royal wedding dress speculation.
