Fashion Institute of Technology Presents "Chalk FIT"

Fashion Institute of Technology  (“FIT”) Senior Illustration students are currently showcasing their talents along the walls of the FIT building along 7th Ave between 27th and 28th Streets. In tune with the 10th anniversary of “Chalk FIT” this year’s theme is "celebration."

The exhibit beautifully captures what “celebration” means to the students, revealing the variety of their thoughts and interpretations. A lot of the beautifully detailed artwork seems to draw inspiration from the diverse multicultural backgrounds of the artists themselves.

Lucky for us, many of these artists have thoughtfully included their Instagram handles and contact details above their work, providing an easy way for art enthusiasts like us to follow along their captivating artistic journeys! We are so fortunate to call such a highly esteemed and creative institution, FIT, our neighbors. 

Black in Time

In honor of Black History Month, FIT’s Black Student Union presents an interactive exhibition featuring work by students, faculty, alumni, and invited artists that illustrates the “constant evolution of black art” and educates visitors about black fashion, art, and music, from ancient Egypt to the modern day. The exhibition aims to celebrate the “evolution of black culture by going beyond the narrative of slavery and back to the rich heritage of culture and tradition in Africa and its expansion worldwide.” It showcases a selection of stunning fashion designs, educational exhibits (including one called “Threads of Bondage” that discusses hidden African American contributions to couture), videos, and artwork. We found the exhibit to be highly educational and informative. It is on view through March 8 just down the street from our office at the FIT’s Pomerantz Center’s Art and Design Gallery.

Future Fashion

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion at the Brooklyn Museum is the first New York retrospective in forty years of the famous couturier. The exhibition covers the designer’s decades-long career and showcases the daring futuristic looks of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and includes prominent pieces that Cardin designed for “a world that does not exist yet.” Featuring over 170 objects from his atelier and archive, the exhibition presents luxury designs from the 1950s; samples from the 1964 “Cosmocorps” collection, which aimed to streamline menswear by getting rid of excessive detailing; colorful unisex outfits; jackets based on Japanese origami, Chinese architecture, and American football uniforms; “illuminated” jumpsuits and dresses (a favorite of ours); couture eveningwear; and much more. We wanted to try on pretty much everything. The security guards, however, were not too keen.

Minimalism/Maximalism at FIT

The Fashion Institute of Technology’s Minimalism/Maximalism exhibit  examines the interplay between minimalist and maximalist aesthetics throughout history. While some styles are decidedly simple in color and design, other items openly celebrate extravagance and spectacle. Spanning from the eighteenth century to the present, the exhibit features garments and accessories from “alternating periods of excess and restraint,” which connect to larger social and economic trends of their times.

Minimalism/Maximalism will be on view through November 16, 2019 at FIT’s Fashion & Textile History Gallery on the corner of 28th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

"Camp: Notes on Fashion" at The Met

Susan Sontag, author of the iconic 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’”, stated, “To talk about Camp … is to betray it.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion” explores the elusive camp aesthetic of deliberate stylization and extravagance in fashion.  The exhibition, heavily influenced by Sontag, traces back to the origins of the camp aesthetic to 17th century France. Through more than 250 pieces, the exhibition showcases camp’s manifestations throughout history and the present, and how it continues to challenge established notions of taste, sexuality, and race.

“Camp: Notes on Fashion” is sponsored by Gucci with support from Condé Nast, and will be on display through September 8, 2019.

friday photo, camp, met museum, fashion

New York Fashion Week F/W 2015

Despite the frigid conditions and harsh arctic winds sending wind chills to twenty below, fashion week goes on. It's a good thing turtlenecks are back (and cross body stoles)! What else is trending at fashion week this season? Hat hair, stompy boots, and—at least at fashion label Opening Ceremony—throwback fashion references to the 1990s. Their collection featured unseen Spike Jonze photographs from that time period as well as "slouch trousers, skater belts, excellent layering and a Kodak-moment colour palette."  

Meanwhile, Tommy Hilfiger constructed a football field for his catwalk and put leather football jersey dresses on his models, which was sure to please New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was in the audience. Diane von Furstenberg (her company is across the street from us so we feel a special connection) titled her collection "Seduction" and had "elements that ranged from the boardroom to the bedroom in a veritable blizzard of offerings." Designer Thom Browne staged a funeral show featuring a white-clad corpse laid out on a gurney and models in all black. Iconic fashion house Oscar de la Renta, which is dealing with the loss of their founder last year, have their first show under successor and new Creative Director Peter Copping.

In the creative world of fashion, diversity and new talent is always a good thing, which is why The New York Times was right to discuss fashion's racial disparity. And also good to see Asian-born talent on the catwalk as well as Navajo designer Jolonzo Guy Goldtooth. In another win for diversity, Italian label FTL MODA enlisted a group of disabled models including those in wheelchairs as well as amputees for their catwalk, following Jamie Brewer's historic walk during the Carrie Hammer "Role Models Not Runway Models" show as the first woman with Down syndrome to walk at New York Fashion Week. And then there was Yeezus.

Great Immigrants: Oscar de la Renta

Iconic fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, known for dressing such women as Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Jessica Parker, and, most recently, George Clooney's bride Amal Alamuddin, and who was the "classic immigrant success story," died last week. Born in Santo Domingo, he got his start in Spain with Cristóbal Balenciaga but soon immigrated to the US to work for Elizabeth Arden. In two years he had his own fashion house, which grew to include fragrances and boutiques in the US and abroad, and soon he became a US citizen.

When asked why first ladies feel so comfortable with him, Mr. de la Renta joked, "'I hope it’s not my age'" and then explained that "much like himself, the First Lady is the ultimate outsider turned insider."

As one of the most famous Dominican immigrants to the US, Mr. de la Renta served as an inspiration and mentor to many Dominican designers, and he was active in many philanthropic ventures in his homeland—which is not uncommon for many immigrants in the US. 

He was declared an "America icon," a title which he humbly disputed.

Biography, a site by A&E Television Networks of "true stories about people that matter," profiles Mr. de la Renta and also other notable immigrants to the US, and the Carnegie Corporation also celebrates notable immigrants from all walks of life who, as Mr. de la Renta did, have come to the US to pursue their own American dream.

Killer Heels

Healing Fukushima (Nanohana Heels) by artist and designer Sputniko! with shoe designer Masaya Kushino. Created in response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster,  the seeds of the flowers on the shoe are known to absorb radioactive substances from the soil. As one walks, these seeds in the high heel are planted into the ground.

This September's New York Fashion Week is over but high fashion lives on at Brooklyn Museum's new exhibit: Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe. What I learned at this recently-opened exhibit: high heels were first worn by aristocratic men in the sixteenth century; in both East and West high heels were worn by the powerful and wealthy to show prestige and communicate power and to signify their "life of leisure rather than labor"; Salvatore Ferragamo is recognized for inventing the wedge heel; and fashion photographer Steven Klein makes some really interesting films--in his short film, one of six inspired by high heels specifically commissioned for the exhibition, a woman in very expensive high heels walks over the chest and face of an attractive and muscled man who is lying on his back, another woman scrapes the hood of car with her stiletto, and a third uses her very beautiful heels (Manolo Blahnik's, I believe) to stomp on a motorized toy car. Featuring over 160 heels from such designers as Balenciaga, Chanel, Tom Ford, and Marc Jacobs (as well as one of my favorites, surrealistic wool "heel hat" meant to be worn on the head by Elsa Schiaparelli in collaboration with Salvador Dali), the exhibit shows the evolution of the high heel from 17th century Italian chopines made of silk, leather, and wood to Iris van Herpen's 3-D printed heel. Check out the exhibit through February 15, 2015--just follow the sound of high heels clicking on floors coming over the speaker at the exhibit's entrance.