Costumes on display at the press preview for "China: Through the Looking Glass", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 4, 2015. [Photo/IC]

The exhibition takes its name from Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," because it is about entering another world.

"Like Alice's make-believe world, the China reflected in the fashion in the exhibition is fictional, fabulous and ancient, offering an alternate reality," said curator Andrew Bolton, adding it is about the collective fantasy of China.

The show features Chinese treasures such as the dragon robe, worn by the last emperor just after he had been crowned, and a painting of a Chinese concubine never exhibited before.

A maze of galleries showcase Chinese calligraphy, perfume bottles and blue-and-white porcelain along with print dresses, fabulous beaded gowns and embroidered jackets by the Western designers influenced by them.