Most of the time, a room full of people in New York City dressed head-to-toe in black wouldn't be something to talk about. Unless you find yourself basement of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, surrounded by an exhibition of mourning clothes called "Death Becomes Her."
The Anna Wintour Costume Center, a new wing of the museum named for Vogue’s iconic editor-in-chief, opened in May and currently displays the black gowns worn by mourners between 1815 and 1915, including a gown worn by Queen Victoria. The room is small and dark, and a person could get claustrophobic from staying there for too long. In that sense, it’s a little like the experience of mourning itself.