What's on the Fashion Calendar for March?

The worlds of fashion and art have collided and there seem to be an unprecedented number of promising exhibitions on the calendar.

Worth Evening Gown and shoe by Isabelle de Borchgrave 2004
Photo by Andreas von Einsiedel
Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave recently opened at the Legion of Honor Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In this exhibition, over 60 paper sculptures from the studio of Isabelle de Borchgrave depict the history of costume. Taking inspiration from paintings, photographs, sketches and museum collections, this artist paints and manipulates paper to look like fabric, which is then styled into the dress silhouettes of the past.  I recall seeing her work in a show called Papier a la Mode at the Royal Ontario Museum  and I've been a fan ever since. In fact, I often revisit her exquisite work inside the beautiful book Paper Illusions, The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave. 

In Los Angeles, the Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 exhibition at LACMA will close at the end of the month. This exhibition examines the changes in fashionable dress over a period of  two hundred years and considers the evolution in textiles, tailoring techniques, and trimmings in the presentation of the museum's relatively recent acquisition of a major European collection. With an incredibly beautiful book filled with breath-taking photos, I'm almost breathless with anticipation at finally getting there.

Also in Los Angeles is the unpretentious FIDM museum where there is an exhibition of  the 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design . The Academy award winning costumes from Alice in Wonderland by Collen Atwood are included in the exhibition as are costumes from The Kings' Speech, The Kids are Alright, The Tempest and other movies from 2010.

Installation shot of Punk Garments, 1977-78
From Zandra Rhodes: a life in textiles
Photo by Anthony Scoggins
Courtesy of the Mingei Museum

And of course, there is the exhibition of Zandra Rhodes: A Lifelong Affair with Textiles at the Mingei Museum. This iconic textile artist, fashion designer and costumer will be speaking about her opera costume and set design work on March 19th in San Diego.

Textiles are the first step of the process of creation for designer Yoji Yamamoto.  He once said "Fabric is everything". Using a variety of traditional Japanese techniques and other more common weaves such as gabardine and tweed, Yamamoto has all his fabrics made in Japan to his own specifications. He became internationally renowned for his unconventional designs that incorporate unusual pattern cutting and often seem oversized, unfinished, non-gender specific, or constructed out of non-traditional fabrics like felt or neoprene.  Yoji Yamamoto retrospective at Victoria and Albert Museum opens March 12.

So many places to be, so little time....

Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition at FIDM

Although the traffic of downtown Los Angeles makes getting there a hassle, you will soon forget all about it when you step inside the Museum of Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). Currently on display is an exquisite display of costumes from recent movies such as The Duchess, The Young Victoria, An Education, The Last Station, Bright Star. 


This exhibition is the eighteenth annual presentation of costumes from motion pictures timed to coincide with the Academy Awards. These costumes "represent the creativity and skill of the costume designer in creating the mood and aura of the period in which each film is set. Whether they are elegant embroideries and ruffles or gritty denims and fleece, costumes must fit the style and tone of the movie, requiring equal amounts of research, skill and talent."


To see costumes up close allowed me to appreciate the complexity of intricate workmanship in a way that one cannot see in a movie. Who knew that anyone still hand stitched garments? Plus I got a more realistic sense of an actor's size - finding Penelope Cruz to be more petite than I expected based on her costumes for Nine and Ben Stiller to be taller than I thought based on his costume for Night at the Museum. The displays were impeccable with clear labeling and lighting. I lingered for a long time in front of the costumes for Young Victoria (which won the Academy Award 2010 for Costume Design). There were seven gowns on display including five for Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and two for Miranda Richardson as the Duchess of Kent. Plus there was a display case with a replica of the Imperial State Crown and the George III Tiara executed in faux jewels but looking real enough!

The staff of this gallery are eager to please and there is also a lovely gift shop showcasing books on fashion and other fashionable treats! If you cannot get there, check out their enchanting and educational blog. 

Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition
February 9 - April 17, 2010

FIDM
919 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
213-623-5821

What's on the Fashion Calendar for March

Monday, March 1, 2010:  Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto 7-8 pm
International Women’s Day Lecture:  Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe
Illustrated Talk by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Curator, Bata Shoe Museum

Common sense suggests that shoes should protect our feet and aid our mobility but the high heel challenges this----it is not a sensible shoe. So why, then, do millions of women, but very few men, wear them? How did such an impractical shoe come to be a potent signifier of status and more importantly, gender? This talk will address these questions by going beyond a simple charting of shifting modes of dress and engage with a wide range of subjects: East-West trade and the lure of the exotic; the expression of socio-economic status through impractical dress; and gender politics and the construction of eroticized femininity.

Saturday, March 6th: Toronto Vintage Clothing and Textile Show and Sale
The 19th Annual Vintage Clothing and Textile Sale will be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the CNIB Centre. Available for sale are vintage clothing and accessories, early textiles including quilts, linens, laces, samplers and related sewing items, and heritage estate jewelery.

Sunday, March 7th:  Jean-Paul Gaultier Collection for Target hits stores today! If you see me, watch out as I'll be sharpening my elbows!!!

It's also the night of the Oscars and what better time to point out that the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angelos has an exhibition called Hollywood 2010: The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design which runs from February 9, 2010 – April 17, 2010. On display are over 100 costumes from over two dozen of last year's movies, such as The Young Victoria, Star Trek, Julie & Julia, An Education, Nine, Broken Embraces, and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Also on display are the fashions from The Duchess, the Academy Award® winner for Best Costume Design in 2008. The free exhibition is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

And that is just for the first week of March! Whew!!