New Delhi, May 5 -- One of the first sights we see in "Costume Art," the new fashion exhibit to be launched at Monday's Met Gala, is a glittering column gown by Dolce & Gabbana, its shimmering gold sequins surrounding an image of Aphrodite.

The Greek goddess stands on a pedestal, holding a golden apple bestowed on her for her beauty - a classic ideal of beauty as old as, well, ancient Greece.

But the idea of "Costume Art," which examines the dressed body through centuries of art history, is not to celebrate the classical form. It is rather, says Andrew Bolton, longtime curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, to use that form as a launch pad.

"Now, we go through and reclaim the body," he says, leading a reporter t...