Last Chance to See

The summer is drawing to a close as are a number of exhibitions of fashion in the museum. The list includes:

Surreal Body Gallery from Impossible Conversations: Schiaparelli and Prada at the Met
Photo courtesy of the Costume Institute at the Met

Impossible Conversations: Schiaparelli and Prada at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York closes TOMORROW Sunday, August 19, 2012. My review of the exhibition was published on Fashion Projects and can be read here.

Tutu Cozy by Svetlana Lavrentieva
Photo by Setareh Samadi

The Tutu Project and Sixty Years of Designing the Ballet at the Design Exchange in Toronto will both close on Saturday, September 2, 2012. In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the National Ballet of Canada, these two exhibitions together provide a whimsical portrait of the tutu on stage and as a work of art.

Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Canadian Art at the McMichael Gallery, north of Toronto in Vaughan, Ontario closes Monday, September 3, 2012. In this exhibition, curator Julia Pine draws on theorist Roland Barthes' interpretation of clothing and adornment as “vestimentary code" because it conveys gender, class and cultural heritage. This exhibition features a number of Canadian artists who have used clothing for "its expressive qualities" and relationship to Canadian identity.

Marc Jacobs

Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris closes Sunday, September 16, 2012. This exhibition traces the legacy and relationship between Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. Marc Jacobs, who is not a fan of fashion exhibitions said: "I always find it a bit difficult to deal with the idea of fashion and museums and I've said that before. And I think curators have a kind of cerebral, heady, comparative narrative thing going on. For me the reward of doing what we do is doing it, not when it's done. And when people wear it and love it and covet it or can't wait to have it, whatever it is. So I think my attitude towards the whole thing was that I was very flattered, but how do we make this experience of what fashion is all about - which is the joy."

What's new?

Charlize Theron, Golden Globes 2012

Watching tv has become a guilty pleasure, especially with a list of deadlines and a stack of reading I'm supposed to do.... But I had to track the red carpet of the Golden Globes and took notice of the key trends:
* mermaid shapes 
* headbands
* chandelier-like earrings
* spectacularly high heels often concealed by dangerously long hems

None of these trends work for me.  From experience, I know that mermaid shapes mean the hem drags along the floor, causing a tripping hazard and picking up the dirt! Headbands give me a headache as do big earrings. And high heels only work if I don't have to stand up for more than 20 minutes or walk more than the length of a room.

In a way, the sea of elegant gowns was a bit of a yawn, but I did laugh hysterically when Ricky Gervais mentioned Kate Middleton = Oscars and Kim Kardashian = Golden Globes.

As I predicted, my inbox continues to surprise and 2012 is already shaping up to be an interesting year even though I seem to be in a blogging fog and I have yet to attend any exhibitions. I think reading the erudite writing of Baudrillard and Foucault is taking over my brain and sapping me of my blogging brain power.  In lieu of blog posts, I'm working on a new project in my studio - making a tutu out of mesh and working on a book proposal (plus my thesis).  In the works for Fashion is my muse! is a list of must-see fashion as art exhibitions for 2012. Stay tuned!  As always, I welcome your comments and emails.

How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living

 

There are many, many books on the life and work of Georgia O'Keeffe - so many in fact that there are multiple pages of listings on Amazon.... Her visionary brilliance as an artist, her fierce independence as a woman, and her turbulent relationship with Alfred Steiglitz give her a mysterious aura that fascinates us all. It is almost a wonder that there is anything left to write about her. And yet, this did not faze Karen Karbo when she decided to put her own spin on the life of this artistic legend. 

Karen Karbo is the author of The Gospel According to Coco Chanel and How to Hepburn. She has a unique gift for biography, crafting a narrative that both delights and amuses the reader, as well as mining that person's life for nuggets of inspiration and life lessons. (Read my January 2010 interview with her here). When Karen wrote to me about her new book, I knew that I had to put down my scholarly journals and get this book, especially since Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers were a huge source of inspiration in my earliest painting attempts. Not yet available in Canada, I ordered How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living on Amazon and it has been my company in the wee hours of the morning during my latest bout of insomnia. 

Although I am not yet finished the book, I've read enough to know that this is another gem. Karen has a unique voice and is both frank and funny in her analysis of the realities of Georgia's life. One passage that encapsulates Karbo's style of writing is this analysis of Georgia's defiance of conventional standards of feminine beauty:

"With her fabulous rawboned frame, straggly brows, and schoolmarm's bun, her black vestments, man's shoes, and odd assortment of hats and turbans, O'Keeffe was out there. There was no one like her, then or ever. A few months before she left her teaching post in Canyon, when someone mustered up the nerve to timidly ask her why she wore her hair that way, O'Keeffe said, "Because I like it." Freeing herself from the endless demands of looking like other women released her into a parallel, and freer, universe. After people adjusted to her curious look, they accepted it and expected nothing else." (pg 13)

This is a book to add to your Christmas wish list!