What was the title of the Met’s 2010 exhibition on women’s changing image in American fashion?

The Met’s 2010 exhibition on women’s changing image in American fashion was titled “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.”

The exhibition explored how fashion helped construct several influential ideas of American womanhood. Its sections examined figures such as the heiress, suffragette, flapper, screen siren and modern woman, linking clothing to social change, politics, entertainment and national identity.

Rather than presenting one timeless definition of an American woman, the exhibition showed how these identities changed across the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Garments, accessories and images demonstrated how designers and popular culture shaped public expectations.

The title is sometimes confused with the 2021 Met exhibition “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” which also examined American fashion but had a different theme and date. The 2010 exhibition focused specifically on feminine archetypes and their historical transformation.