Costume Institute

We All Need Some! The Costume Institute’s, Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition, Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Without a little twinkle, some pizzazz, that certain something that makes us smile, or some camp in our lives it would all be so very boring. I visited the Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition, Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier.  It certainly added a sparkle to my day and will do the same for you. Here's a sneak peek of the exhibition (photos do not do it justice) before tonight's Met Gala, co-hosted by Lady Gaga and Harry Styles, sponsored by Gucci and spearheaded by Ana Wintour. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Haver▪️Modern Business (@focusonstyle) It's hard to pick favorites, but I love Liberace's head to toe diamonte, Bjork's swan dress,

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A sneak peek into Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Met

I popped uptown yesterday to the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute’s new Anna Wintour Costume Center for the press preview of its first exhibition, Charles James: Beyond Fashion spotlighting the career of  the legendary 20th-century Anglo-American couturier  (1906–1978). Through the years, I've seen pieces of James work  and many of the gowns on display seemed like beautiful old friends that I was delighted to reaquaint with. But it wasn't a gown that made me smile. The first down jacket, and it was couture. It was seeing his white celenese satin jacket with eiderdown filling, 1937, a textile based sculpture in response to the boxy fur jackets that designer Elsa Schiaparelli was showing and what many women wore at the time. Love it or leave it, this

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Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s PUNK: Chaos to Couture at The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Left: Sid Vicious, 1977. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph © Dennis Morris - all rights reserved Right: Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938) for House of Chanel (French, founded 1913), 2011. Vogue, March 2011. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by David Sims.
Every once in a while f-a-s-h-i-o-n takes itself way too seriously and fails to remember the heart + soul that is the inspiration for its being. There, I have said it. I wanted to love PUNK: Chaos to Couture at The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But when you take the grit out of a movement and distance it from its authenticity, what's left are derivative pieces which, when standing alone, are lost in the vapor that is a hot flash of fashion. Sanitizing iconic punk style to what could be a Broadway musical version for the matinée fashion set. Are you for real? Where's the chaos? Where's the historical appeal? A "replica" of the CBGB bathroom attempts to set the mood.

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American Fashion On View

Charles James "Butterfly" Dress, 1955. Smoke gray silk chiffon; pale gray silk satin; aubergine, lavender, and oyster white tulle. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Lost in Fashion Bliss… The Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute goes online

One of the best things about being lucky enough to grow up in NYC is to regularly visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even luckier, is to have a yen for fashion and the privilege to visit its Costume Institute, starting from back in the day that Diana Vreeland ruled. The Costume Institute’s recent renovation makes viewing the fashion exhibitions even more spectacular but for those who cannot make it to Manhattan or crave some deskside drooling and inspiration, WWD reports this morning that 29,432 items from the Costume Institute's impressive collection 31,000-piece collection of clothing and objects have been photographed and cataloged into an online database. Please visit the fashion archives of Met online, you may become addicted: http://metmuseum.org/works_of_art/the_costume_institute

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