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at the MET’s ‘costume art’, sculptural mannequins are scanned from real bodies

designboom.com·May 5, 2026

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Art exhibition features fourteen mannequins sculpted from real bodies, showcasing diverse physical forms and challenging traditional fashion displays. This innovative approach, led by sculptor Frank Benson, emphasizes the lived experience of bodies, with mirrored heads that abstract identity and invite viewer interaction, thus transforming the representation of fashion within the museum context.

The Met's Costume Art exhibition is pioneering the use of 3D-scanned mannequins based on real bodies, which shifts the focus from idealized to authentic representations of the human form. This innovative approach not only enhances the realism in displaying garments but also encourages a broader dialogue about diversity and inclusion in fashion presentations. For professionals in design disciplines, this highlights the potential of integrating digital scanning and fabrication technologies to create more inclusive and realistic design solutions.

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