Fashion Exhibits 2018

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Or happy holidays, happy days, happy days are getting longer.

Here are some fashion exhibits that I’m looking forward to possibly attending in the year of 2018.

• Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Institute
• Fashioned from Nature
  Victoria & Albert Museum(The first UK exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 to the present day).
• Margiela Retrospective
  Palais Galliera
• Azzedine Alaia: The Couturier
  The Design Museum
  (Celebrate the timeless beauty of the female form with thirty-five years of haute couture from Azzedine Alaïa, and discover the mastery of cut, tailoring, fit, innovative form and materials behind the designer’s unique creations.)

Yesterday in Paris

I spent yesterday in Paris and I have to say that it was truly one of the best days I have had on four hours of sleep (the other one being that time our flight to Florida was delayed but we still spent the whole next day at MGM/Disney Studios Hollywood/whatever they’re calling it now).

So the agenda was as follows:

• I went in around 11:30 am, got in a bit after noon and went to the Grand Palais to see the Irving Penn photography exhibit that I missed when it was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was really excellent and I’m very glad that I went. I kind of glided over the photography I was less interested in (the close up portraits of cigarette butts, for example) but I was really into the portraits of artists (Colette! Joan Didion! Always DTF Truman Capote!) and the beautiful nudes (which Facebook subsequently made me take down (free the nipple)).
• After about an hour and a half with Irving Penn, I met Luis (a fellow ISIPCA student) and had a very refreshing Perrier while he had lunch.
• And then we went to the Le Grand Musee du Parfum, which was super cool and overlapped a lot with things we’re learning in school- particularly the historical aspects. It helps that the professor who went through perfume history with us is on the artistic board/board of directors/I’m not sure what for the museum.
• The gift shop had some lovely smelling opportunities, which were continued when we visited Jovoy, a niche-oriented perfume shop that wasn’t too far away.  Another student (Oliver) met up with us there. (My favorite thing I tried was Romanza by Masque Milano, but I already new I’m very into it, so no big new discoveries.
• We went back to Gare St Lazare, stopped at Jo Malone on the way to try to get Luis a sample or Orris & Sandalwood, failed, and then made the trip home to Versailles.

NYC Doings

Ahhh, I’ve fallen so far behind but what can I say, I’ve just been loving summer.
I was in NYC this past weekend- well, starting Sunday and then getting home ridiculously late last night/early this morning.
With Mom, for Mother’s Day and ending with that bit of interview that I mentioned earlier as the deciding factor in my life to come. I’ll be hearing back in five weeks or so. Keep your fingers and toes and everything crossed.

More Fashion Documentaries

One of my posts recently was the fiftieth List Mimsy post, so that was exciting.  And I think keeping up with it amidst the cyclone that is college is going pretty well.  And also I’ve had time to watch movies (sort of) which is why I can still write posts like this.

Basically, I had wanted to write that list of my favorite fashion documentaries and then I stumbled on a whole lot more of them that had been released since my first favorites were amassed.  Clearly it was time to hold some new auditions.

So what is this second cream?

Manus Ex Machina

My Mom and I met up in Manhattan this past weekend for one night and one day of fun and hijinks.  Actually, the aim was to see this year’s Costume Institute exhibit, Manus ex Machina, whose theme is the intersection of work done by hand and work done by machine.  Somewhere along the line, the fashion world realized that most clothes now are machine-made, and aren’t very artistic or interesting at all, so somehow discussions about technology and the future had to come into play (because science isn’t interesting unless it’s science fiction?)
Which made for a very interesting/embarrassing Met Gala.  If Hiddleswift was the most embarrassing thing spawned by that event, I feel I can guarantee that the faux-space suit fashion was a close distant second (sorry, Hiddlewift, it’s too much).
Thankfully, the exhibit itself is gorgeous and not all of the Met Gala dresses were atrocious laymen’s ideas of what fashion in the age of machinery looks like (Claire Danes, you did good).  But entirely too many starlets and starlos sashayed that red carpet with the conviction that if the outfit was a) metallic and/or b) had cut outs, it must be technological.  I mean, you want something machine-made kids? Walk over to Kmart.