This summer New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to an exhibit of fashion, titled "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology," exploring the techniques and processes used to make couture.

And it's not the only museum with fashion on the menu. All around the world, fashion is moving from catwalks into galleries.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Correspondent Serena Altschul asked Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of the Costume institute at The Met, whether fashion really belongs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Yeah, I think the ephemerality of fashion sometimes goes against its serious consideration as an art form," Bolton replied. "The fact that it's often seen located within the female domain is often another reason there's this inherent sexism around fashion. And part of our role as curators is to promote the artistry of fashion, and to promote fashion [as much] as an art form as other art forms in the museum -- sculpture, painting."

In the summer of 2011, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art bowed its blockbuster exhibition, "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty," devoted to late British fashion designer.

"It was a complete surprise to us when we started to have lines around the museum," Bolton said of the McQueen show. "It was so unprepared for them as well. We don't really set out to create a blockbuster, per se."

With more than 660,000 visitors, the Alexander McQueen show was one of the Met's top 10 most-visited exhibits of all time, alongside exhibits featuring the Mona Lisa and Picasso.

"More than double what we were expecting, absolutely," said Bolton. "I think it introduced a new audience to the museum. So that's always great."

Karl Lagerfeld's wedding ensemble for House of Chanel, Autumn/Winter 2014-15, from "Manus x Machina."

Spring/Summer 2003 prêtà-porter dress by Nicolas Ghesquière for House of Balenciaga.

Yves Saint Laurent dress (Spring/Summer 1983 haute couture).

"Kaikoku" floating dress by designer Hussein Chalayan (Autumn/Winter 2011-12 prêt-à-porter). Courtesy of Swarovski.

A Spring/Summer 2010 haute couture ensemble by Dutch-born Iris van Herpen.

"L'Eléphant Blanc" evening dress by Yves Saint Laurent for House of Dior, (Spring/Summer 1958, haute couture).

At Boston's Museum of Fine Art, an exhibit called "#techstyle" (through July 10) explores the intersection between technology and fashion.

Pictured: A coated leather "Air" cape from British designer Lauren Bowker's The Unseen 2015 Air Collection.

"The attendance for fashion shows has been extraordinary," co-curator Lauren Whitley told Altschul. "Fashion shows bring in lots of people. We don't own cars, but we all own clothes, and they are very intimate to our experiences as human beings."

Pictured: 3D‑printed polyeurethane rubber and acrylic, steel cage, and cotton twill inner lining and silk satin lining Cape and Skirt, from the Voltage Collection by Iris van Herpen, designed by Neri Oxman, and printed by Stratasys Group.

To "#techstyle" co-curator Lauren Whitley, museum fashion exhibits are more than just a trend. "We've actually been showing fashion shows since the 1930s," she said. "There have been frequently occasions where major artists were interested in fashion. Picasso was involved with the stage; Coco Chanel with Hollywood. One of the most interesting was Elsa Schiaparelli, who was very close with a circle of surrealists like Dali."

Pictured: Bodysuit from the 2014 Hard Copy collection of Israeli designer Noa Raviv. Silk, polyester, tulle, cotton, beads, and 3D printed elements.

Dress and bolero by Japanese designer Issey Miyake. Clothing by Reality Lab, Miyake Design Studio.

2015 gown by American designer Sally LaPointe: 80% polyester, 20% polyamid; stretch silk charmeuse.

Pair of "Molecule" shoes from Francis Bitonti Studio Inc. for Adobe. Finished and printed using Adobe Photoshop CC.

Jacket and trousers (part of a three‑piece ensemble) by Swiss designer Akris, featuring flashing LED stars, St. Gallen embroidery crepe, asymmetrical tuxedo, silk asymmetrical top, crepe boy pants, black cervocalf leather belt.

Pop star Viktoria Modesta wears an artificial leg, "The Spike," designed by Sophie de Oliveira de Barata of the Alternative Limb Project. From the exhibition "#techstyle."

"We have to remember fashion designers are artists," said Whitley. "There is a huge aesthetic drive behind creating fashion, and it is one of the decorative arts, like ceramics, like furniture, like jewelry."

"Water Splash" Crystallization dress Iris van Herpen (Dutch, born in 1984) Dutch, 2013 Plexiglass synthetic *Image Courtesy of Nick Knight and SHOWstudio.com *Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Designer Isaac Mizrahi is a little more sanguine about fashion's place in museums. "Some fashion belongs in museums, you know? And some really doesn't," he told Altschul.

His life and work is featured in yet another fashion-themed exhibit, "Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History," at New York's Jewish Museum (through August 7, 2016).

X-ray, Fall 2010 Cashmere and acetate coat, from "Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History."

For Mizrahi, museum-worthy fashion falls into two categories: historically significant or visually mesmerizing.

"I think that Alexander McQueen stands on its own, right? You could have looked at that 100 years ago, or 100 years from now. It's the craft of it, you know? Whereas like, again, Chanel or Halston was such a thing about the time that they lived in."

Mizrahi's "The Real Thing" (Spring 1994) used paillettes made from real Coca-Cola cans.

Installation view of the exhibition "Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History," at the Jewish Museum in New York City.

"Oscar de la Renta: The Retrospective" (at the De Young in San Francisco earlier in 2016) celebrated one of the most heralded names in haute couture.

Left: Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress Resort 1969 (printed silk organza), from the Kent State University Museum. Photograph by Erin Burns.

Right: Oscar de la Renta evening dress Fall 2014 (black silk satin, gold lamé, gilt feather appliqué). Photograph by Dan Lecca.

The Roaring Twenties ("The greatest gaudiest spree in history," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald) roars back to life in "Flapper Style: 1920s Fashion" at Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio (through Sept. 4, 2016).

"Missoni Art Colour" at London's Fashion and Textile Museum (through September 4, 2016) showcases the work of Italian designers Ottavio and Rosita Missoni.

A sequined column evening dress (plastic sequins on silk plain weave and silk fringe) from Maison Martin Margiela's Spring/Summer 2012 collection, styled like a Persian carpet, was featured in "Swagged and Poufed: The Upholstered Body in the Late 19th-Century and Today," a recent exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I.

A recent exhibition at Tokyo's National Art Center highlighted the work of Japanese designer Miyake Issey and the technologies he has used to explore the relationship between fabrics and the human form.

"Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage" explores the impact of the Dutch textile company, founded in 1846, and features not only Vlisco's extraordinarily bold patterns but also the works of African and European fashion designers. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art (through Jan. 22, 2017).

Pictured: From Vlisco's Dazzling Graphics collection, 2011.

A view of sketches from Isaac Mizrahi's New York collection show, fall 1988, on view at "Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History."

For more info:

"Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, New York City (through September 5) | Buy tickets
Exhibition Catalogue: "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology" by Andrew Bolton; Photography by Nicholas Alan Cope
Exhibition Catalogue: "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" by Andrew Bolton, with contributions by Susannah Frankel and Tim Blanks; Photography by Sølve Sundsbø
"#techstyle," at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (through July 10)| Buy tickets
"Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History," at the Jewish Museum, New York (through August 7) | Buy tickets

Other recent and upcoming fashion exhibitions:

"Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage" at Philadelphia Museum of Art (through Jan. 22, 2017)
"Swagged and Poufed: The Upholstered Body in the Late 19th-Century and Today" at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I. (through July 3)
"Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015" at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (through August 21) | Buy tickets
"Carolina Herrera: Refined Irreverence" at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, Atlanta (through Sept. 25) | Buy tickets
"Flapper Style: 1920s Fashion" at Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio (through Sept. 4)
"Killer Fashion: The Consequence of Style" at the Charleston Museum, Charleston, S.C. (July 21, 2016-Jan. 15, 2017)
"Black Fashion Designers" at the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (December 2016-May 2017)