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“China: Through the Looking Glass,” the Costume Institute’s celebration of China’s influence on Western fashion, is on track to become one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most-attended shows of all time, WWD reported. The Met recently extended the show’s run through Labor Day to accommodate the steady stream of visitors, the total number of which, as of yesterday, is over 500,000. The show’s popularity may be due to its interdisciplinary approach to its subject matter—Asian art, both old and new, is shown alongside the clothes, Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai did the art direction, and the Met’s Andrew Bolton curated.
The Met’s most highly attended Costume Institute show remains its 2011 Alexander McQueen retrospective, titled “Savage Beauty.” Currently the Met’s eighth most-attended show of all time, “Savage Beauty” got a major publicity boost from McQueen’s suicide the year before it opened. A total of 661,509 people saw that show in its 15-week run at the Met. (“Savage Beauty” is still traveling around the world.)
Now that “China: Through the Looking Glass” has been extended to a 19-week run, it should have no trouble surpassing the Alexander McQueen show’s tremendous attendance numbers.