House of Craft x Dior Exhibit

You might admire the fashion label of Christian Dior, but do you know all of the creative people who shaped it or made it? The UBS House of Craft x Dior event in NYC's Financial District answered those questions. 

Fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, together with photographer Brigitte Niedermair, curated an exhibit of iconic looks from the House of Dior under the label's creative directors throughout its history. Sketches demonstrated the design process of leaders Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

The exhibit also showcased the most memorable accessories, garments, and styled editorials, showcasing each designer's vision. There were also a series of talks about the different aspects of the fashion industry. I found the demonstrations and intimate one-on-ones with current artisans of the label the most interesting. 

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LONDON: Lore of Loverboy Exhibit - Club to Catwalk Punk

I just returned from London, where I wondered what the state of punk fashion was today. At Somerset House, there was a fabulous exhibit by designer-in-residence Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY. 

The designer's looks include fans like Tilda Swinton and Harry Styles. What makes his work classically British punk is the incorporation of traditional Tartans and a healthy dose of anarchy. What makes his work modern club fashion is the mix of surrealism and novelty motifs with streetwear. What makes LOVERBOY art are the pieces that double as sculptures, like the Wedgewood dragon helmet, repurposed trash dress, or my favorite banana shoes below.

The spirit of punk fashion started off as anti-establishment and involved mutilated, trashed clothing in many cases. Fashion collections from many a "club kid" turned "designer" often have little merit or endurance. Ten years into his thriving label and seeing Charles Jeffrey's workspace and process, the "club kid" persona should be the very least of his designer identity. Seeing the sketches, the pattern and draping, the official tartan registry certificate, and the thoughtfulness of his collaborations, the LOVERBOY works more like a classic couturier atelier than many contemporary labels.

For anyone who thinks the art in modern club fashion, or social media savvy designers is gone. They only need to see the Charles Jeffrey Loverboy collection to restore their faith.

The Lore of Loverboy exhibit runs until September 1, 2024.

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Met Gala Exhibit: In America An Anthology of Fashion

 

What is American fashion? The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has been exploring what that means since its inception. Like many museums, many fashion exhibits have been a celebration of the elite paying tribute to themselves. That has also been my top criticism for exhibits of recent years like China: Through the Looking Glass and Punk:Chaos to Couture.

I was pleasantly surprised at In America: An Anthology of Fashion. The show was a series of vignettes curated by successful directors like Sophia Coppola, Chloe Zhao, and Regina King. Many of the vignettes highlighted accomplished dressmakers (before they were called designers) of color who created some of the most famous garments in American history. What do they usually have in common? They were women of color, who were rarely recognized publicly or treated with disrespect.

Ann Lowe, who only in recent years had her name celebrated, was the go-to maker of Jackie O’s famous wedding gown and counted high society’s leading brides and debutantes as clients. However, Jacqueline Onassis, when asked who made her dress, would callously just say “a colored dressmaker”.

Mary Todd Lincoln’s inaugural gown was made by Elizabeth Keckley, who was once a slave, then a trusted companion in the White House, then an author and activist. Fannie Criss Payne was also featured. She was a Virginia modiste who turned to dressmaking because it was one of the few businesses a woman of color could legally start in the late 1800s. 

It wasn't all dark history though. The most joyous vignette was the dancing, floating mannequins Tom Ford curated depiction of the Battle of Versailles. This 1973 moment in fashion history where American designers traveled to France to declare themselves a design force to be recognized on an international scale. Designers Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Halston, Anne Klein, and Oscar de la Renta brought models and collections in tow to show the world that Europe did NOT have a lock on style. The event was recently dramatized in Netflix's Halston series starring Ewan Mcgregor.

While the fashion world as a whole is far from progressive. Seeing the talent involved (both as exhibit and curator) gives me hope that it is inching forward, however slowly. Giving credit where it was due, centuries later, at least is a start.

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Christian Dior at the ROM

Enjoying the Haute Couture shows this week out of Paris? Well, I just returned from Toronto where I got to explore Christian Dior at the ROM. This fashion exhibit was on the smaller side at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The show was not a career-spanning, sprawling retrospective of the brand like you would expect to find at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This Christian Dior exhibit mainly focused on the era around the New Look's popularity. Think the 1940's and 1950's. The fit and flared silhouettes of this time period defined that generation. Many would even refer to that era and the clothing aesthetic as the "Dior New Look period."

What I really appreciated about this exhibit, was the tributes it paid to their artisans. Most people don't realize details like hand-beading, ribbon making, etc. are services that are often handled by outside contractors at the Haute Couture level. Usually, those names are lost to history. This exhibit had cases of embroidered swatches from the top embroidery studios that the designer used. Studios like Maison Rebe, Maison Hurel and Gynisty & Quenolle.
The show also highlighted how Christian Dior purposely used ribbon as an elaborate design element as a way to preserve the ribbon industry itself.
If you cannot afford to fly to Paris and order Haute Couture creations every season, your local dressmaker can pay to use licensed editions of designer patterns and sketches to make a legal designer copy for your clients.
I liked seeing screen monitors that educated the viewer on the construction of the garments. Some looked deceptively simple until you saw the many, precisely drafted pattern pieces that made up the gown on the mannequin,
You got to see small glimpses of the design process. There were sketchbooks and hand cut fabric swatch catalogs on display. 

Brand-expanding licenses were covered. Everything from perfume, jewelry, and shoes were shown. I was a little disappointed that this exhibit did not have more personal anecdotes or items that would give you a sense of the man behind the label. However, the process of the label and everything that made up the dress in front of the label was covered. 

I also would have liked to see the work of other designers that have led or influenced the brand, rather than just a little bit of the work process for Christian Dior.

Now that you have seen a bit of elegance in Toronto, why don't you visit the exhibit sometime? The Christian Dio at the ROM show will be in Canada until March 18, 2018.

Photos by Mariana Leung

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Louis Vuitton: Volez Voguez Voyager Exhibit

Do you want to drown yourself in travel luxury inspiration? The Louis Vuitton Volez Voguez Voyagez exhibit at the American Stock Exchange building will make you yearn to take a posh cruise with 200 of your favorite frocks in trunks.
This was an extensive show, detailing the humble beginnings of Louis Vuitton, who at 14, traveled to Paris to work as a box maker. He perfected his craft to make a light, ergonomic travel trunk that quickly became the favorite accessory of the elite. Signature Louis Vuitton details established then that continue today are his use of canvas (which is waterproof) and monogram patterns that were a protection against counterfeits.
How could you not drool over the classic trunks of wood, metal bolts, handpainted monograms full of drawers for your precious things? There were many examples of vintage ads touting the practicality of Vuitton's products, not the luxury of them.
Other bags were introduced to adapt to the way his customers traveled. The canvas steamer bag was an innovation because it could be folded into the trunk but also brought out less formally, like the first overnight bag. Other bags included cases designed for the new craze of automobiles, more portable carryalls for plane travel, etc.
The house of Louis Vuitton had always collaborated with artists. The painting trunk designed with drawers to support framed works, documents, art supplies had me pushing my face up to the glass with envy. I don't know that many artists that can afford such a treasure, but we can dream. There were writers trunks, cases for your important LP records, tea sets, if your lifestyle demanded it, it was designed.
Modern collections of Louis Vuitton continued the collaboration with artists. Remember the Takashi Murakami craze of 15 years ago? How about the graffiti splashed Stephen Sprouse collection? There are collaborations with other designers like Rei Kawakubo or even the recent project with streetwear brand Supreme.
There was a glamorous display of the fashion the brand has put out. While I loved the clothes, they always seemed very removed from the classic travel luggage brand they had established. This certainly didn't stop the many celebrities who have worn them over the years on red carpets.
Just in case you forgot that Louis Vuitton products are a handcrafted creation, current artisans were on hand to demonstrate their craft in person.
I loved the theatricality of some of the rooms. Mixed media helped give you a sense of motion in traveling an antique train to the tiled subway video walls at the beginning.
One comes out of the Louis Vuitton Volez Voguez Voyagez exhibit ready to mortgage your house on a bag. Luckily for my finances, they don't offer the bags for sale at the end. Instead, you leave with a Louis Vuitton pin to wear as your souvenir.
Louis Vuitton, Volez Voguez Voyagez is at the American Stock Exchange Building in NYC until January 18, 2018. Book your (FREE) tickets.
photos by Mariana Leung

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Fairy Tale Fashion at the Museum at FIT

Happy Easter Weekend my lovelies. I thought I would start it off with Manish Arora's Alice in Wonderland inspired costume at the Museum at FIT's Fairy Tale Fashion exhibit. This fantasy fashion tribute is one you don't want to miss if you are in town. It is a gorgeous mix of looks both from contemporary designers and historic costume. Some are inspired by ancient tales literally while some are more in spirit.

Alice in Wonderland's loopy dreamscape has Mad Hatters, a character driven insane from his own profession in fashion. Playing card motifs, tea parties, rabbits and a host of other characters tht inspire designers. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film inspired a bunch of designers like Haider Ackerman and Alexander McQueen to create tribute ensembles for the movie.

Cinderella is a romantic story with an epic makeover. Both her "rags" stage and ballgown stage has
served as muse to many designers. In the 1970s, designer Giorgio di Sant'Angelo created a bohemian collection of layered prints and stitch details to celebrate Cinderella's rags. Many a designer created stunning ballgowns. Christian Louboutin designed the drool-worthy Cinderella shoes to coincide with Disney's Cinderella movie.


Little Red Riding Hood is a story about a girl defined by her outerwear. There were historic red hooded cloaks along with contemporary designer counterparts. The Beauty and the Beast tale also displayed historic costumes to illustrate the story of the era of the 1700s.

The Little Mermaid and many under the sea creatures were the inspiration for some of the whimsical exhibits. Seaweed and coral motif appliques embellished a Rodarte fishnet gown. Hideki Seo created an elaborate Sea Witch ensemble for the exhibition. Nature also plays into the lore of fairies and Sleeping Beauty. Woodland creatures are a part of the Snow White and Rose Red fairy tale. The exhibit pays tribute to furry pelted looks from J. Mendel, Prada's 2008 collection with James Jean fairy illustrations and Alexander McQueen's collection of dresses with insect motifs.

The Wizard of Oz is a great story to inspire fashion designers. The hero of the day are those ruby slippers. Many shoe designers have created their own version of the famous footwear. Gingham and prairie looks, sinister black and green fashion illustrate the fashion tropes of this story. The Museum at FIT hosted their own exhibit of Tonner Doll's tribute to The Wizard of Oz movie. A huge collection of designers re-imagined high fashion updates to either the Wicked Witch or Dorothy.

While some of the fairy tale fashion is pure costume fantasy. Some of the gorgeous looks were perfect for bringing magic into real life. If you want to give your sartorial day a happy ending, get yourself to thehttp://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/ Museum at FIT's exhibit before it ends at April 16, 2016.

Photos by Mariana Leung

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Jacqueline de Ribes The Art of Style

I treated myself to a morning with the latest fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style was an interesting study of an actual Haute Couture customer and designer who actually designs for herself.

Many of the big costume institute exhibit at the Met is a retrospective around a theme or designer. It is celebrated for the artistic merit, detached from human beings who wear it. This was one of the first exhibits that showed the relationship between the designer and client.

Jacqueline de Ribes was a countess and celebrated style icon. Leading couturiers of the 1960s like Yves Saint-Laurent, Valentino, Guy Laroche, Christian Dior and Emanuel Ungaro had a working relationship with her. Seeing her archives demonstrated how a customer buys from a designer at this level. She doesn't always buy the looks straight from the runway, she might collaborate with the designer to tweak it like remove the sleeves, order it in different colors, re-order pieces from past seasons. When each piece is handmade for you at this price point, designers are accommodating.

Countess de Ribes wasn't going for the trendiest look. She preferred timeless flattering outfits. She loved sorbet bright colors, but also classic black and white for the evening. She became a fashion designer herself, clearly learning from the couturiers she patronized. Her own aesthetic was a combination of beautiful fabric drape and expert tailoring to the body. Each of her designs had a special detail that was the focus of the look. In observing the ensembles throughout the exhibit you can see these details in both her own work and the pieces she chose for herself from others.

My favorite room was the one hosting three masquerade ball costumes. As only a countess could, the elaborate looks were cobbled together with chopped up Haute Couture pieces, fabrics and trinkets from discount jobbers and upcycled into fabulous period piece fantasy gowns.

If you have ever wanted to imagine yourself as an aristocrat with the most fashionable life ever, the Jacqueline de Ribes The Art of Style exhibit might be the closest you'll get to that experience. Enjoy it until February 21, 2016.

Check out The Top Fashion Exhibits Headed to Museums
by Ms. Fabulous at Mode

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Fashion and Virtue - Print and Embroidery Inspiration at the Met

Is bring properly embellished close to Godliness? In Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, producers of books and art of the 1500's to 1600's wanted you to believe so. Being a virtuoso at your craft, whether it be needlepoint, printing, sewing, was akin to being virtuous.

The current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the connection of print patterns, embroidery and its influence on fashion. Prior to the 1500s, fashion for anyone outside of the aristocrats was pretty limited to plain, basic function. The technology of print really did revolutionize fashion for the masses. For the first time, fabrics could be printed with pretty motifs, echoing the trends of wealthier classes. Prior to that, only a select few could afford hand-made embroidered clothing. In the pre-Pinterest days, the samplers of stitches or embroidery layouts offered inspiration to those who aspired to make DIY finery for themselves.

It is quite a marketing trick to inspire homemakers to work hard at a skill (and sell product) by aligning their crafts with their church. The exhibit features printing tools like carved woodblocks. There were printed needlepoint patterns where you could see the needle punched holes to transfer the designs onto fabric. There were lots of illustration plates showing detailed crochet and embroidery designs as well as the finished product. You could see a lot of nature-inspired and religious motifs in the mix. These collections of textile patterns for fashion were the Vogue Magazine of Rennaissance times.

At the end of the exhibit, there were pretty examples of both historical costume and contemporary fashion designers who produced clothing with these techniques. French linen lace tunics, Mexican embroidered ponchos, Iranian silk slippers and Russian apron dresses that looked in sync with the 90's Todd Oldham slip dress.  While the textile and print books were mainly from Rennaissance Germany and Italy, you can see how much they resemble the techniques of other cultures in embroidery and color.

Can you achieve virtue being a master of DIY? Well, there are enough current magazines and Youtube stars that will tell you it does.  Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until January 10, 2015.
Photos by Mariana Leung

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The Blonds Retrospective with Rootstein Mannequins

Do you know that spectacular spangly outfit worn onstage by your favorite pop diva? It was probably made by The Blonds. That impossibly perfect specimen of male/female beauty on the runway? That's Philippe Blond. The iconic mannequin company Rootstein immortalized him as one of their new mannequins in both his masculine and feminine looks. Gender fluidity never looked this good.

During NY Fashion Week, I enjoyed a fabulous cocktail party/retrospective exhibit of The Blonds most iconic looks. I recognized most of the outfits from my favorite concerts. While they looked great from afar, it was really impressive to see the work and construction up close. The highly dimensional embroidery with jewels, spikes, chains, electric wire was incredible.

Together with partner David, The Blonds are icons of 1990s club looks taken to the Nth degree. Each outfit is creating a character unto itself. They are so flashy, so over the top that it makes the person wearing them larger than life as well. They costumed everyone from Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Beyonce, well, any modern pop icon you can think of actually. Such mundane concerns as wearability or practicality are not considered.

Do you have a favorite look from The Blonds? Sound off below.

Check out Top Fashion Museum Exhibits in the Next Year
by Ms. Fabulous at Mode

All photos by Mariana Leung 

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Ralph Pucci: Art of the Mannequin

How often do you think about the mannequin? Ralph Pucci is an accomplished product designer who frequently collaborates with the top fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenburg, Ruben Toledo, Christy Turlington, Anna Sui...

Is a mannequin just a big doll where you hang clothes on like a coat hanger? Or is a mannequin the embodiment of our perceptions of the ideal body in our time period, changing cultural trends, our Pygmalion? This current exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC examined the work of Ralph Pucci who elevated the work of creating a mannequin into an art form.

Most retail store forms are ordered from the same catalog across the continent. They don't reflect the time period or personality of the brand they are being used for to sell clothing. The Anna Sui mannequins have wide eyed doll heads that echo the vintage collectibles she gathered from flea markets and decorate her store. Kenny Scharf's "swirly" mannequins a reflection of recurring characters in his paintings. Supermodel Christy Turlington's seated mannequin was molded after her own face in great detail to capture a naturalistic vibe to complement her yoga brand. A collaboration with Ruben Toledo resulted in a stylish plus-sized mannequin to serve the growing strength of full figured fashion trendsetters.

The creative process included modelling the shapes from clay, then casting a fibre-glass finished product. Pucci began using this craft as a design and art medium after inheriting his parent's mannequin business in the 1970s.

There were mannequins that barely even represented the human form. There were mannequins that were in dramatic motion poses, even a handstand. No one said a mannequin should only stand stiffly. Is it about making a tool to display a commercial product? Or is a mannequin a method of giving a visual soul to a commercial product? This was a fashion museum exhibit equivalent of "The Emperor Has No Clothes". Just like great style lets one look beyond the clothes to see the person, this retrospective forces you to see the creative work underneath the fashion.

The Ralph Pucci: The Art of the Mannequin exhibit runs until August 30th, 2015.

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China Through The Looking Glass, Appropriation or Tribute?

The fashion industry's greatest night will happen in a few hours. I was treated to an early preview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume institute exhibit that will be the star of the 2015 Met Gala. China: Through The Looking Glass was one of the most spectacular fashion exhibitions I have ever seen.

The morning started with remarks by Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute's curator and film director Wong Kar Wai, who also served as the exhibit's artistic director while reigning queen of Vogue Anna Wintour presided over the ceremony.

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The displays were stunning. Many of the museum's antique archive pieces of Chinese garb were presented alongside contemporary couturier pieces that were clearly influenced by them. Groupings included looks that took traditional motifs and embroideries as its muse. There was a beautiful room of pottery inspired gowns.

"Through the looking glass" is actually a paraphrased translation of a Chinese idiom referring to the reflection of the moon. There was a room set up to appear like a garden with a reflecting pool. The ceiling was a digitally animated moon progressing through its different phases while water droplets fell. The mirrored surface was the perfect stage to show all sides of the sculptured silhouettes of this gallery.

As a fashion fan, couture fan and Met museum fan, I loved this beautiful exhibit. However, as an Asian-American, I wondered where all of the actual Chinese contributions were? Of course, director Wong Kar Wai's participation in the exhibition was tremendous and heavily promoted. Within the exhibit itself, I found that 90% of the "fashion" looks were by Western designers. They were paired with Chinese antiques, but there was no discussion of how much China contributes to modern fashion. How many of the Western design labels who were celebrated here are produced in China? What percentage of their staff that designed, sewed, marketed and slaved to make their labels succeed were acknowledged? I have worked in all aspects of the fashion industry and Chinese talent has played a major part in every step. Where was this mentioned in the show?
Of course, no exhibition on Chinese designers could be without Vivienne Tam.  Hers is the most prominent brand to bridge traditional and modern pop culture with her innovative use of Chinese motifs. A few exceptions included dramatic pieces by Guo Pei and Laurence Hu. Otherwise, there were endless looks from Yves Saint-Laurent, Givenchy and John Galliano for Dior. While I can't argue with the beauty of the gowns themselves, John Galliano lost his position at Dior due to the embarrassment of his verbal attack using racist Asian slurs.  Design notes from Yves Saint-Laurent demonstrated how the brand appropriated the exoticism of oppressed classes using terms like coolie in their notes and slant-eyed racist sketches.

There was an entire gallery of how Yves-Saint Laurent's Opium fragrance influenced the popularity of the Asian aesthetic and a small gallery of Paul Poiret using Orientalism as his signature trend. The percentage of European and American designers appropriating Chinese culture was presented in a way that seemed to convey that the Chinese culture was only validated as a design force only after Western designers chose to appropriate it. This was in line with Hollywood's prevalent "Great White Hope" approach to movies featuring any other ethnicity as a theme (think The Last Samurai).

Actress Gong Li has also been heavily promoted in all the press releases leading up to tonight's Met Gala as co-host. No doubt there will be more Chinese nationals at this gala than ever before. However, how many Chinese guests has Anna Wintour invited before or will invite after this year?

Many of the most influential designers of today's fashion scene are Chinese, like Alexander Wang, Jason Wu, Philip Lim, Anna Sui. I saw a hat by Jason Wu, but otherwise, I did not see any other pieces representing these designers. How about the technology, the innovations, or current trends from Chinese designers that don't fall neatly into the cliche idea of "Chinoiserie"? One remarkable exception was a room dedicated to a huge gold ballgown by Guo Pei. This designer should soon be a household name for her mix of technology and old-school couturier practices. The dress took over 50 000 hours of manual labor to make.

There was a gallery of Anna May Wong, one of the very few Asian movie stars of any prominence from the early part of the 20th century. If one is looking for a gorgeous Asian classic Hollywood star to be inspired by, she would be the one. Unfortunately, she did not have much competition. There was a costume worn by her and similar gowns inspired by that era. While it looked beautiful, the thought that came to mind was how little progress we have seen for Asian actresses in light of how many years have passed since her heyday.

I'm looking forward to seeing the red carpet from tonight's Met Gala for China Through the Looking Glass. I'm hoping that there will be a contemporary representation of the history shown at the exhibit today. While artistic and fashionable, this exhibition was breathtaking, culturally, there is still a long journey ahead.

All photos by Mariana Leung

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Dance & Fashion at the Museum at FIT

Looking for fashion inspiration over the holiday weekend? The Museum at FIT currently has the Dance & Fashion Exhibit going on. If you were remotely moved by the ballet trend of recent years post Black Swan, or gave an exaggerated pose in slinky disco-inspired knits, this show is for you.

The first section you encounter is a collection of extraordinary ballet costumes from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Artisans made amazing creations inspired by the fantasy aesthetics of exotic cultures. The Ballets Russes and its “Orientalism” aesthetic in turn inspired many fashion designers like Paul Poiret and Yves Saint Laurent.

Balenciaga was famously inspired by Spanish Flamenco dance. Following in his footsteps were designers like Elsa Schiaparelli and Oscar de la Renta.

The collaboration of fashion designer and dancer has a longtime history. In modern dance, Halston is often associated with the body conscious look of Martha Graham’s dance company. The looks then spilled over into high fashion and street wear. Stephen Burrows capture the disco era with dance-friendly knits. Alvin Ailey has often taken street culture and street fashion as muse in their productions.

Designers Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, Prabal Gurung, Giles Mendel and Olivier Theyskens have all designed for the New York City Ballet. In turn, their costume director Marc Happel has paid tribute to designers like Christian Dior and Balenciaga in his own work for the New York City Ballet. The designers behind Rodarte were well publicized for their contributions to the Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan in 2010, and tulle and ballet flats hit the streets in the seasons that followed.

The exhibit paired the punishing structure of Anna Pavlova's ballet pointe shoes alongside extreme styles from Christian Louboutin and Noritaka Tatehana that were inspired by them.

Designers’ fascination with dance is so strong that many have featured the dancers themselves on their runway, like Zang Toi’s Ballerina Babes collection and Rick Owen’s spring 2014 show featuring African American stepdancers (watch it, it's fierce).

A good fashion designer makes clothing that is comfortable, functional and beautiful. Dressing a dancer is the ultimate challenge to test those skills. Maybe all designers need to ask their fit models to bust a move. The streets are today’s runway. The runway is a stage. Maybe if all the world's a stage, all the men and women merely dancers.

Dance & Fashion at the Museum at FIT runs until January 3, 2015.

photos by Mariana Leung

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Charles James, Beyond Fashion

What makes Charles James the most respected technician and designer of fashion?  The Metropolitan Museum of Art aims to explain this with their new exhibit, Charles James, Beyond Fashion.

While non-fashion fans may not be aware of his name and work as much as mega-brands like Chanel or Prada, anyone in the design field has probably studied his creations as a master class.  You may have heard clothing being described as "architectural" and missed the connection.  Looking at a Charles James dress, this is where you finally understand how a garment can resemble a scientifically constructed building.

The designer is most famous for his clover gowns created for special clients in his 40 year career, having first debuted in 1953.  The signature look is the way that the skirt drapes into a shape resembling a four-leaf clover.  For those of you who have never draped a soft, delicate, two dimensional fabric to cover a three-dimensional body, it might be impossible to understand what a feat of engineering this is.  As a fashion student, the legend was that these gowns were so impeccably constructed, they stood up on their own.

While I have seen many of these pieces in previous exhibits over the past 20 years, what was impressive to me about this show was the high-tech tools used to educate the viewer on the genius of Charles James.  There were large screens programmed next to each gown on the first floor gallery.  The screens displayed intricate 3D animations of each layer and pattern piece that went into each dress.
You might see each layer of horsehair, satin, lace, tulle and what their flat piece looked like (much like a Roschach test) and how it was draped and sewn into place to create the fully dimensional garment.  Robotic arms highlighted each area on the gown represented by the screen.  On the yellow satin lace gown (top photo) lace inserts were even lit from within to demonstrate its sheerness.  It also showed that in addition to the masterful shape of the lace on that skirt, there were hand-cut and stitched lace motifs added on top of the gown to give a more artistic layout and texture.

While the creativity or style sense of Charles James was undisputed. He saw himself as a problem solver and teacher.  The scrapbooks and studio part of the exhibit indicated he analyzed more effective ways to fit the human body, attempting to re-invent the modern dress form.

He was passionate about construction, innovative seaming, circle-cut gowns.  Many of his looks are iconic and never duplicated.  Some of his biomorphic designs were well ahead of their time, influencing other designers like Christian Dior, Zac Posen and Alexander McQueen.

Make sure to catch Charles James, Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before August 10, 2014.
photos by Mariana Leung

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Organic Matter: Pratt & Pucci Collaboration

Think your sweater is exciting? Fashion design students from the Pratt Institute worked with designer Ralph Pucci on an innovative knitwear project at Gallery Nine in New York City.  Ralph Pucci has created a specialized mannequin collection.  The design students were tasked with making organic, wearable art using neutral colored yarns to complement the body form muse.

The exhibit was a competition among the 30 looks in the exhibit and will be judged by some of the design world's elite like textile designer Dana Barnes, architect Patrick Naggar and photographer Diego Uchitel.

I like this exhibit for how it blends multiple forms of product design together and treats the clothing as sculpture.  The unprocessed colors of the yarns used and the sprawling, organic looks of the knits achieve a vibe of clothing that seems alive on the mannequin.

Designers pictured above include Kiet Tran, Kimi Lee, Meghan O'Sullivan, Chantal Galipeau, Katherine Daskas and Kat Holland.

The exhibit runs until Tuesday, January 28 at Gallery Nine, 44 West 18^th Street, New York, NY.
Photos by Sam Stuart

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Jean Paul Gaultier: Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Disturbing, provocative, delightful.  All of the above and more was found at the Brooklyn Museum's The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk exhibit.

Gaultier created some of the most iconic looks of my generation.  Everyone recognizes the cone cup corsets of Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour .  Fashion fans have marveled at the varied inspirations and theatrical runway shows over the years.

The exhibit itself was not your typical, institutional retrospective you would expect from a museum.  Upon entering the first gallery, you are startled when you gaze at the mannequins and find them blinking or even glaring back at you.  The "Virgins" collection had mannequins singing, wearing dresses inspired by religious icons.  The mermaids on the other side were adorned in mother of pearl and golden filigree.

The designer's mastery of intimate and apparel were displayed in a long dark corridor on spinning dress forms so you could see the painstaking details that went into each and every piece.

The gallery of punk style had elaborate creations in denim and tartan.  A moving runway displayed cheeky looks like a cancan dress that was painted with legs on the interior, but looked like a more conservative white ruffled dress on the outside.  The punk mannequins could make you jump, whispering that they were "behind you" as you observed other parts of the room.

Gorgeous looks worn by the likes of singers like Beth Ditto were part of a gallery that showed the diversity of age, body shape and ethnicity that the designer liked to portray on the runway.  Another room showed the global influences of design that made their way to his shows.  One of the most impressive looks in this room was the Asian-inspired look of his first collection that he put together with straw placements from the local market before he had the money to fund more expensive fabrics.

While Jean Paul Gaultier clearly took craftmanship and design very seriously, his own persona was another matter.  A talking mannequin of himself hosted the exhibit and the attitude of his catwalks always showed a sense of fun.  Photographs or interviews with him always portrayed a winking sensibility that I enjoyed.

This exhibit is a must-see and one of my favorites in recent years.  Get yourself to the Brooklyn Museum before February 23, 2014!

exhibit photographs by Mariana Leung

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