In the Land Of the Free, Who Wears The Skirts?
ANDREW BOLTON knows how to put across the fluctuating relationship between difference and similarity, and what more can you ask for? The young British curator has woven a rich tapestry of a show from a theme that promises little more than wan provocation. Entitled ”Bravehearts: Men in Skirts,” the exhibition is this season’s offering at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, where Mr. Bolton is associate curator. You may go for the legs. You’ll stay for the plaids. A vastly enlarged version of a show presented in 2002 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, ”Bravehearts” will undo the considerable damage Prince Charles has inflicted on the cause of kilts. Of the 120 fiberglass mannequins on display, not one has knobby knees. I checked. They are all well-toned. So is the sensibility on view. It is a show about freedom, basically, a quality we could use a lot more of in our cultural life. The subtext is a fall-from-grace story. In the West, men dressed like peacocks
