Matthew Yokobosky Named Chevalier within the Nationwide Form of Benefit

FRENCH TENDENCIES: The Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of favor and subject material tradition Matthew Yokobosky has been named a Chevalier within the Nationwide Form of Benefit.

He was once venerated for orchestrating “fabulous exhibitions that shine a spotlight on French fashion” and “reflect the fact that France is truly a land of innovation.”

The medal was once offered by way of Damien Laban, appearing consulate normal of France in Unutilized York at a rite on Jan. 18 on the French consulate on 5th Street. His predecessor Jeremie Robert, who was once just lately tapped as French President Emmanuel Macron’s aider on African affairs, had knowledgeable Yokobosky that he could be saluted endmost summer season. Changing into a Knight of the Nationwide Form of Benefit was once now not one thing that Yokobosky had ever regarded as. When he were given the decision presen seated at his table, he mechanically began taking notes on a yellow Submit-it be aware — simply as he does with the entirety. However this be aware needed to be reread time and again — “maybe just to emphasize that it wasn’t a dream,” he mentioned.

Within the moment since he first joined the Brooklyn Museum as an exhibition dressmaker in 1999 and increased to the supremacy inventive function, he at all times pursued tasks that he felt captivated with with out ever specializing in the truth that possibly he was once appearing extra French designers than others.

Visitors at Thursday’s amassing incorporated Dianne Brill, Amy Fantastic Collins, Lauren Ezersky and her husband Nelson Glad, Cartier’s Esther Woo and Jon Omahen and style designers Claudio Cina and Nabys Vielman. Photographers Sante d’Orazio, Faten Gaddes and Dustin Pittman and artists Paul Caranicas and Ruth Marten had been a few of the alternative creatives within the folk.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, the College of Pittsburgh alum first labored on the Carnegie Museum of Artwork ahead of transferring to Unutilized York. In 1987, he took a curatorial workman publish on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork. At that moment, his nights had been spent designing costumes for the avant-garde theater Los angeles Mama with the director Ping Chong. Yokobosky gleaned his style technology from the 40-page spreads in Main points album that incessantly featured pictures of favor presentations for Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana. The ones pictures that had been shot by way of Invoice Cunningham “really inspired” Yokobosky’s aesthetic for costumes, he mentioned.

Via his curatorial function, he has spotlighted the paintings of Gaultier, Mugler, Pierre Cardin and Dior and the way they helped climate tradition undoubtedly by way of highlighting gender stereotypes and feminism in exhibitions. One instance was once the 2022 “Thierry Mugler: Couturissme” display, which was once coordinated with Thierry-Maxime Loriot. The 2020 display “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion” was once the primary one within the U.S. in 40 years. In 2021, participating with the home of Dior, Yokobosky staged “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” to enlarge the namesake dressmaker’s ties to Unutilized York. “Dior is like the Monet of fashion. He’s evergreen and there are many ways you could do a show about Dior,” he mentioned.

In his remarks, which have been shared with WWD, Yokobosky mentioned, “I think what has drawn me so continually to French culture is the forms of beauty, cinema, fashion, food, architecture and indeed style. There is an ability to capture the subtlest of feelings in a perfume, a film scene, a wonderful pastry, a fashion design. And when you are in Paris, you often do feel, as if you are in a very chic movie — the possibility exists.”

Fittingly, next being venerated on the French consulate Thursday night time, he flew to London to catch the “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” exhibition on the Victoria & Albert Museum. A dinner on the participants’ eating room within the Space of Commons capped off the future’s festivities.

The Brooklyn Museum’s yet-to-be-revealed nearest exhibition gained’t be only French-centric and can be fairly pan-historical, consistent with Yokobosky.