What was the title of the Met’s 2009 exhibition about fashion models and celebrity?

The title of the Met’s 2009 exhibition about fashion models and celebrity was “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion.”

The exhibition examined how models have influenced fashion design and public ideas about beauty from the twentieth century onward. It treated models not simply as people who display clothes, but as cultural figures whose identities, bodies, and celebrity can shape the meaning and commercial reach of fashion.

The show explored different model archetypes, including the society mannequin, the professional runway model, the celebrity model, and figures whose distinctive looks became strongly associated with particular eras. It also considered how changing media altered the relationship between models, designers, photographers, and audiences.

The exhibition accompanied the 2009 Met Gala and opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in May of that year. Its title is sometimes shortened informally to “The Model as Muse,” but the full title includes the subtitle “Embodying Fashion.”