Dressed to K*ll Tour of the Metropolitan Museum

How Do We Present Ourselves To The World? If you’ve never thought much about that question, you certainly will after this tour. That’s because you’ll learn about some of the most fascinating, bizarre and painful things people have done throughout history to look impressive, alluring and downright stunning. Welcome to the Dressed To K*ll Tour at the Met!

This tour is about everything glamorous. From the grand hairdos of Imperial Rome to the outrageous wigs of the court at Versailles; from gold ear spools in pre-Columbian America to neck rings in Africa and Southeast Asia; and from three hundred years of torturous corsets to three thousand years of gorgeous cosmetics, the history of fashion is on dazzling display at the Met.

We’ll look at fashion from head to toe, as well as inside out. (Just what did Victorian women wear underneath those giant hoops?) And we’ll look at men, too—with their powdered wigs, white makeup, foppish ruffs and of course those ridiculous codpieces.

As always on a Shady Ladies tour, we’ll go beneath the surface to get to the real story: the political, social, and even medical currents that shaped fashion and how it changed. Why did French courtiers wear foot-high wigs in the 17th century? Were beauty spots really used to cover up syphilis? And how did bicycles affect the way women dressed in the closing years of the 19th century? On this fun and informative tour you’ll find out the answers to these and many more fascinating questions about fashion and beauty.

Above all, we’ll come to see that fashion is one of art’s biggest topics—not only for what it tells us about changing standards of beauty, but also for what it reveals about the astonishing lengths to which people will go to attain it.

So come enjoy the beauty of the Met’s stylish sitters—and learn how the obsession with beauty is as old as civilization itself…

TOUR MEETS IN THE MET'S GREAT HALL, TO THE RIGHT OF THE ENTRANCE, AT THE FEET OF THE COLOSSAL ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PHARAOH STATUE, 15 MINUTES BEFORE TOUR START TIME. Please give yourself time for security and the coatroom, and note that there are no restrooms in/near the Met's entrance (but we will make a restroom stop during the tour).

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Host or Publisher Andrew Lear