- Robyn Turk
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Sandy Schreier might not be a household name, yet she is the
subject of a forthcoming exhibition held at The Metropolitan Museum of
Art’s Costume Institute.
A fashion historian and couture collector, Schreier will loan 80
pieces from her 165-piece collection to the museum for its showing of
“In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection.” Schreier sees
herself as a “fashion savior,” as she told The New York Times. She
began collecting at a young age, when her father worked at the Russeks
department store in Detroit.
Amassed over several decades, Schreier’s collection spans 96 years
of fashion history. It has grown into one of the most celebrated
private couture collections in the world, comprised of pieces by
Fortuny, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior, Jean Lanvin and many pieces
by Elsa Schiaparelli, among others. Items in the collection have been
worn by fashion icons including Twiggy, Matilda Dodge Wilson and Rita
Hayworth.
Schreier, who has written two books on fashion history, previously
Schiaparelli lent items to The Met for its 2012 exhibition,
“Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.”
“My passion for fashion as an art form drove me to search for the
most innovative, creative, and breathtaking objects by well-known and
lesser-known talents,” Schreier told The New York Times. “I am elated
that these pieces will now live on as my legacy at The Met, where they
can be conserved and shared with the public, designers, and scholars
for eternity.”
The collector also told the newspaper that she does not wear any of
her exquisitely preserved pieces as she considers her fashion as art.
She explained that if she owned a work by Picasso, “it would not be on
my back.”
“In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection” will be on
view from November 27 to May 17.
