It’s true, last Friday night we were indeed at the Katy Perry concert in Brooklyn. As you might imagine, the production value was beyond, beyond — the costumes, the fireworks, the guitar players on wires, and the BALLOONS. And Katy herself is a seriously great performer. Very girly, very colorful and very joyful, my daughters declared it the best concert of their lives. I have to agree, she has set the bar rather high…
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| Charles James with Model, 1948. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by Cecil Beaton, Beaton/Vogue/Condé Nast Archive. Copyright © Condé Nast |
A few weeks ago we finally went to see Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gowns are of course gorgeous, and their construction phenomenal, and truly unparalleled. But what I love most are his dresses, suits and coats. Each completely stunning. In fact James himself stated, “You should know my most important contribution was always in tailoring; coats, jackets, wool dresses…so few of which went into the magazines.” And the exhibition catalog is a beauty.
Charles James: Beyond Fashion is on view through August 10.
www.metmuseum.org
I finally watched Mademoiselle C, Fabien Constant’s 2013 documentary about fashion editor Carine Roitfeld. A quite stylish (of course)and intimate film with an amazing soundtrack, it follows Roitfeld as she creates her gorgeous new magazine, CR Fashion Book, soon after her departure from French Vogue. It is also a very personal portrait of Roitfeld — her life, her family and friends, and her creative process. I loved it.
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| Silk satin wedding dress, designed by Norman Hartnell, 1933, given and worn by Margaret, Duchess of Argyll. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. |
It’s no secret that we love a great wedding, and a great wedding dress. So you can imagine how excited we are about Wedding Dresses 1775-2014, a gorgeous exhibition that just opened last month at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This chronological survey of the development of the wedding dress presents over 80 ensembles from both the outstanding V&A collection and loans, such as Gwen Stefani’s iconic Dior gown worn for her 2002 wedding to Gavin Rossdale, in addition to accessories, sketches and photographs spanning more than 200 years. And we loved the three videos created for the exhibition featuring designers Pam Hogg, Philip Treacy and Gareth Pugh. The great news is that Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 is on view through March 15, 2015 — we might just get there!
www.vam.ac.uk
I love a great pantsuit and I’m swooning over this one from the Louis Vuitton Resort 2015 Collection presented in Monaco on May 17. Available in not one but six fabrics, I consider this pantsuit rather perfect.
I adore the stretch of avenue du Président Wilson between place d’Iéna and avenue Marceau in the 16th arrondisement, with the Palais Galliera Museum of Fashion and directly across the street, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Palais de Tokyo.
The latter are two of my favorite museums in Paris, both for their fantastic collections, exhibitions and programming, but also for the history of the structures that house them — built for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, one of the most important international expositions of the 20th century. The Musée d’Art Moderne owns countless masterpieces of modern art, including murals by Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Raoul Dufy. The Palais de Tokyo is simply one of the coolest art spaces in the city. It also houses a very inspired garden created by the visual artist Robert Milin. Located on rue de la Manutention along the side of the Palais de Tokyo, Le Jardin aux Habitants is divided into sixteen plots, each tended by a different urban gardener. I even spotted a chicken roaming around! I think the best time to visit this particular area is on Wednesdays and Saturdays when one of the biggest and best open air markets in Paris can be found right in the middle of the avenue.
www.mam.paris.fr www.palaisdetokyo.com
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| Constantin Joffé, American Vogue, September 1945. © 1945 Condé Nast |
Fashion and photography seemed to be everywhere in Paris last month! Another exhibition I loved is Papier glacé: un siècle de photographie de mode chez Condé Nast (Coming into Fashion: a Century of Photography at Condé Nast) at the Palais Galliera Museum of Fashion. Containing 150 original prints from some of the most celebrated fashion photographers of the early 20th century to the present day, the show is not organized chronologically or by artist, but instead by theme, I think a far more interesting way to look at the work. The perfectly curated images are breathtaking in person. We’re talking about Norman Parkinson and Herb Ritts and Man Ray and Deborah Turbeville and George Hoyningen-Huene and Bruce Weber and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and Irving Penn… Also included are contemporary fashion films, screens for exploring various Condé Nast publications and select haute couture. And if you’ve not been to the Palais Galliera, there is a lovely, open garden with a sort of dreamy view of the Eiffel Tower.
Papier glacé: un siècle de photographie de mode chez Condé Nast runs through May 25.
One of the most fascinating exhibitions in Paris right now can be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Dries Van Noten: Inspirations. It’s not quite a career retrospective, nor even a fashion exhibition, but rather, a show about the creative process of the brilliant Belgian designer himself. Contained within some 15,000 square feet, it feels remarkably intimate in its vast, two level space. The content itself, more than 400 pieces, feels intimate too — a first-time invitation into the world of Dries Van Noten and his tremendous array of inspiration which includes film, photography, fine art, music, nature and fashion, from multiple centuries and multiple countries. Cecil Beaton, Bronzino, Elizabeth Peyton, Jacques-Émile Blanche, Paul Poiret, Francis Bacon, Balenciaga. Van Noten’s far-ranging stylistic references are another important element in the installation such as feathers, butterflies, Orientalism, India and the uniform. And I loved David Michalek’s Slow Dancing film, with his wife Wendy Whelan as one of the featured performers, a special commission for this exhibition.
Dries Van Noten: Inspirations runs through August 31, 2014
www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/
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Brassaï, Couple d’amoureux dans un bistrot, rue Saint-Denis, c. 1932
© Estate Brassaï
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Ah, Paris. My trip a few weeks ago really could not have been better, in fact, it was rather perfect. The weather was glorious, everything was in bloom, the city didn’t feel overly crowded — Paris was certainly at its best. There were so many fantastic exhibitions on last month with a particular focus on fashion and photography. One such is a major Henri Cartier-Bresson show at the Pompidou Centre running through June 9. Friends in Paris warned me that the lines for admission were still quite long (it opened just a few weeks before my arrival) so I decided to conserve my time and skip it altogether. Although, I understand it is most definitely worth seeing.
I did get to a tremendous exhibition at the Hotel de Ville, Brassaï: Pour l’Amour de Paris. The Hungarian-born Brassaï (1899-1984) was unquestionably one of the most important photographers to document Paris in the twentieth century. Not necessarily the obvious, but rather the less obvious, and perhaps the far more compelling and truthful — the city at night, nightlife, light and shadows and even the somewhat deviant — from his perspective within the artisic and intellectual avant-garde. This installation was significant, comprehensive and smart. I loved it. Brassaï: Pour l’Amour de Paris was set to close on March 29, however a beautiful catalog was produced, available here. And I had never actually been inside the Hotel de Ville, very nice!
I’ve got Paris on my mind this week (I’m heading there on Saturday!) and have been closely following Paris Fashion Week. The two collections that have spoken to me the most are Haider Ackermann and Valentino. Haider Ackermann presented an exquisite, quietly luxurious collection in the most gorgeous, relaxed fabrics and neutral color range. I swoon.
Valentino presented their collection today, which I watched via live stream this morning. By far my favorite work of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli since they became the Creative Directors in 2008. At once modern and romantic, this collection feels exactly right. The cuts and palette as a whole are lovely, the capes and leather pieces are fantastic and the dresses, skirts and sweaters are just so beautiful.
