Every year I look forward to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual fashion exhibit presented by the Costume Institute. For the past few years, Andrew Bolton, Curator in Chief, has arranged exhibitions that are both fantastic and historical, taking extreme care to preserve the art of fashion. Several months ago, it was announced that this year's exhibit would be titled Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology. I'd read that the show would explore the difference between the hand (manus) and the machine (machina), but more about the union of both. Being a lover of couture, I was excited about the possibilities of the topic and to view the pieces that would be included. On a rainy Monday in May, I could barely contain myself as I walked into the Robert Lehman Wing.
Read moreChanel N°5 In A New Light
Chanel recently held an amazingly fragrant art exhibit in New York City to celebrate the new EAU PREMIÉRE, a modernized version of the classic N°5. Originally created in 1921, Chanel N°5 has long been an iconic scent with an instantly recognizable bottle. Housed in a corner space in the Meatpacking District, the exhibition was broken down into five distinctive parts:
Read moreThe Met Museum of Art China: Through the Looking Glass
The announcement of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual fashion exhibit is something that I look forward to every year. I'd read that the show was to be titled CHINA: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, but it wasn't until I saw a picture of a gold sequined dress in a press release that I became truly intrigued. It stated that the objective of the exhibit was to "explore the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion". For hundreds of years, designers have been referencing culture, art, and cinema from the East and incorporating into their work. Sometimes with just a nod, sometimes quite literally, and always with their own interpretation. However, the most obvious question can not be avoided. Can this exhibition be done without being culturally insensitive?
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