Fashion isn’t just for the eyes: Upcoming Met Gala exhibit aims to be a multi-sensory experience

JOCELYN NOVECK

Fashion, most would surely agree, is meant to be seen. Not heard, and certainly not smelled.

But Andrew Bolton, the curatorial mastermind behind the blockbuster fashion exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, begs to differ. His newest show, to be launched by the starry Met Gala next month, seeks to provide a multi-sensory experience, engaging not just the eyes but the nose, the ears — and even the fingertips, a traditional no-no in a museum.

Open to the public beginning May 10, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” features 250 items that are being revived from years of slumber in the institute’s vast archive, with some in such a delicate state of demise that they can’t be draped on a mannequin or shown upright. These garments will lie in glass coffins — yes, like Sleeping Beauty herself.

As ever, celebrity guests at the May 6 gala, which