Sleeping Beauties August 11, 2024
Posted by judylobo in Zoo.Tags: art, Art exhibit, Costume Institute, Fashion, Fashion as art, Metropolitan Museum, nature, NYC, photography, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
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If you have been to the Metropolitan Museum in the past few months you have seen the insane long lines to get into the Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. When I have visited the Met these past few months I refused to stand in those lines. However, when I visited a few weeks ago, I was one of the first people into the museum when it opened. I got their QR code for admittance to this exhibit and scrambled upstairs quickly. Luckily I was the fifth person in line and now I understand why these lines were so very long. They only allow a few people to enter at a time. This goofy protocol does, however, give the visitor a great experience. I was basically alone with one other man my whole visit. Continuous curved white walls give the show the feel of a lab, or a maze. The exhibition features 220 garments and accessories spanning four centuries, all connected through themes of nature, which also serves as a metaphor for the transience of fashion. Visitors are invited to smell the aromatic histories of hats bearing floral motifs; to touch the walls of galleries that will be embossed with the embroidery of select garments. The show is built on a base of 15 pieces from the institute’s collection that have become so fragile over time they can no longer be displayed on mannequins (the “sleeping beauties”), along with more than 200 hardier gowns and accessories reflecting organic themes such as roses, butterflies and beetles (nature also being fragile). Its curators seek to “reawaken” these items with a dash of technology and sensory overload: touch, smell and sound. The exhibition is on through September 2nd. Plan your visit accordingly and you will enjoy the creativity and quality of the curators. Factoid: The fashion industry funds the work of The Costume Institute, including its exhibitions, acquisitions, and capital improvements. Each May, the annual Gala Benefit, its primary fund-raising event, celebrates the opening of the spring exhibition. 
Buttons and Bows April 7, 2024
Posted by judylobo in Zoo.Tags: art, Art exhibit, Bows, Bowties, Fashion, Fashion as art, march madness, NYC, photography, The Museum at FIT
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Recently the Museum at FIT, presented Untying the Bow. The exhibition invited viewers to delve into the captivating world of bows and explored the impact of bows as they transcended their humble utilitarian origins to become a sophisticated and influential component of personal style. Untying the Bow was presented in three thematic sections: Form and Functions began by tracing the bow’s utilitarian origins. Status and Gender, explored the “bow’s” symbolism as a marker and subverter of status and gender. Finally, in Abstraction, the exhibition examined how the symbolism of bows has evolved into abstract forms and patterns. It was a fun, illuminating trip through the history of the Bow. It was very enjoyable. For those that are crazy, mad basketball brackets fans here is last year’s tribute to March Madness. 
What’s Up Your Sleeve? February 11, 2024
Posted by judylobo in Zoo.Tags: art, Art exhibit, Fashion, Fashion as art, NYC, photography, Sleeves, The Museum at FIT
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Sleeves? Not Sure I have ever given sleeves a second thought until I saw this fun exhibit at The Museum at FIT. This space has been showing wonderful exhibits these past couple of years. This latest one is no exception. ‘What is a “statement sleeve”? The fashion media has regularly used the term for less than a decade, yet many of us can conjure images of what it describes: a sleeve style that is exaggerated, embellished, elaborately constructed, or otherwise eye catching to the extent that it defines a garment. Statement sleeves have been spotted on innumerable fashion runways in recent years, with no sign of waning. From puffed to ruffled, split to sheer, there is a style for everyone. The exhibit showcases nearly 80 fashion pieces from The Museum at FIT’s permanent collection – the majority of which are on display for the first time – and features the works of renowned designers such as Balenciaga, Tom Ford, Schiaparelli, and Vivienne Westwood. They are organized thematically or by complementary aesthetics rather than chronology. The exhibition highlights how sleeves serve as a vital mode of self-expression that reflects our gestures and movements, showcases their ability to indicate specific fashion eras and their related trends, and proclaims their role as signifiers of status, taste, and personality’. So what’s up your sleeve?
Who are you wearing? April 3, 2022
Posted by judylobo in Zoo.Tags: art, costumes, Fashion as art, Garmenting, Museum of Art and Design, NYC, photography
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I am not a fashionista. I pretty much wear the same thing everyday. That said – I do appreciate fashion as expression and as an art form. The Museum of Art and Design never fails to have thought provoking and unusual exhibitions and this is one of them. From their website – ‘The first global survey exhibition dedicated to the use of clothing as a medium of visual art, Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art examines work by thirty-five international contemporary artists. By making or altering clothing for expressive purposes, these artists create garments, sculpture, installation, and performance art that transform dress into a critical tool. Adopted globally as an artistic strategy, garmenting uses the language of fashion to challenge traditional divisions of form and function, cast a critical eye on the construction of gender, advance political activism, and address cultural difference’. If you have never been to this place I highly suggest you visit. It is at Columbus Circle and has grand views of Central Park and a wonderful restaurant on the top floor.
While at the Zoo 