Apparently the smells made the museum very nervous! They didn’t want anyone to feel assaulted by having to endure the scent of human hair from a hat, and so on. Personally, I very much enjoyed the pat-’n-sniff wall in the “Specter of the Rose” gallery, which allows a visitor to release the smells that have been lifted from a Paul Poiret dress and pair of House of Drecoll gowns and embedded in the paint.

— The New York Times reviews The Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (for which Sissel Tolaas did the interactive fragrances). Read more in At the Met, Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up in the Chemistry Lab.

To reawaken these clothes through smell, the team from Sissel Tolaas Studio extracted scent molecules from the fabrics, then used a microfilter to trap the air and moisture. Eventually, they analyzed the molecules to identify and replicate the smells. Some of the smells you’ll find include odors found in tobacco, bitter drinks, high-end skin products, roses, polluted environments, and toothpaste. The technology is so advanced, that it even determined aromas associated with human hair and human skin that had been in contact with a dog.

— Smell artist Sissel Tolaas created the fragrances for The Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, which runs May 10–September 2 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Read more in The Met Museum’s new ‘Sleeping Beauties’ fashion exhibit is a wonderland for the senses at TimeOut, and see also Sissel Tolaas: The Certified Expert Of All Things Smell Is On A Quest To Sharpen Your Fifth Sense at Pin-Up.