Met Exhibit Unveils Diverse Body Mannequins

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will unveil a groundbreaking exhibit titled "Costume Art" on May 10, 2026, featuring 25 new mannequins modeled after diverse real-life individuals to highlight underrepresented body types in fashion and art history. The display, which pairs about 400 art objects and garments from the museum's collection, launches with the annual Met Gala on May 4 and runs through January 2027.

Curator Andrew Bolton described the initiative as an effort to incorporate body positivity into the exhibit, which explores the dressed body across centuries. Traditional fashion mannequins often represent a standardized, thin, able-bodied form, typically a women's size 2, Bolton noted. To address this, the museum created the new figures based on scans of actual people, emphasizing body types historically overlooked, such as the corpulent, disabled, or aging forms.

The process began with photogrammetry sessions in Brooklyn, where models stood amid circles of up to 175 cameras to capture detailed 3D scans. Participants included artist and designer Michaela Stark, who modeled for three mannequins; disability activist Sinéad Burke, born with dwarfism and...