Sneak Peek: The Met Museum Costume Institute Exhibit: "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity"

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The soon-to-open Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibit, entitled "American Woman: Fashioning a Nation's Identity," looks like a "journey through this country’s past through the fashion lens," says WWD.

The exhibit features rooms dedicated to "The Heiress" (a la Brooke Astor's Newport mansion), "The Gibson Girl," and "The Bohemian," alongside a political series including an ode to suffragists, patriots, and proestors, and archival images and garment from the flapper era. But nothing struck a chord with WWD like the museum's take on Hollywood.

Perhaps the most quintessential symbol of America to the world could well be the “Screen Siren.” It features mannequins in glamorous gowns set against screens showing scenes from famous Thirties movies, and including Hollywood icons such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth.