friday field trip

 
i visited cafe sabarsky for apple strudel and a coffee with whipped cream before crossing the street to the met museum this morning. (i would like to return for a special exhibit of paintings by the german artist paula modersohn-becker that eva has recommended. i have until september 9th!)

i was there to view the costume exhibit with several knitting friends.

several of the garments were so delicate they were draped flat with very low light. they had a computer generated video of the above ball gown from 1887 (house of worth) in motion which i didn't film as too many people were congregated around it. the dress is silk satin with silk chiffon and gold and metal lace trim. it's embroidered with gold sequins, opalescent and gold glass beads.

a french dress from 1780 - silk taffeta hand painted with wisteria, cherry blossoms and asters.

ivory silk dress from 1878/80, madame martin decalf, hand painted and trimmed with glass beads.

i didn't take a photo of the explanation for this confection . . so i have no idea of its purpose or its materials. it's certainly very pretty.

no photo of the information, but i thought it looked like a monet painting.

the exhibit was actually very cramped and crowded. i believe its final date is drawing near and everyone was trying to see it before it closed. i was relieved to arrive at this room which had more space for everyone. 

it also included beautiful yellow dresses; the earlier ones dyed with weld (reseda luteola, sometimes joined with spurge flax, daphne gnidium) and the later ones dyed with synthetic variants. several dresses were a combination of the natural plants and synthetics.

the color graphs at the bottom show the spectrum of light that each garment absorbs and reflects and allowed the restorers to identify the dyes used for each item and track the transition from natural to synthetic (invented around the mid-nineteenth century).

they had large glass capsules with smell molecules replicated from the garments! i had to try smelling several of them and it wasn't pleasant. the odor was very chemical-like. it gave me a sore throat.

this contains the explanation of how they captured the odors along with descriptions of the smells of each hat or dress that they used as samples. it's interesting to read and i think you need to click on the photo to enlarge it so it's legible.

#7, house of dior, "vilmorin" ensemble, spring/summer 1952

house of dior, "may" ball gown, spring/summer 1953

"white net overlaid with white silk organza embroidered with light green, green, pink and purple silk thread in a pattern of red clovers and grass."

h&m, swedish, light pink polyester chiffon recycled from shoreline plastic waste (!)

on the right: biosequin dress (2023) by stella mccartney - white deadstock (fabric leftover from textile mills production process) silk tulle embroidered with iridescent cellulose sequins (manufactured by radiant matter, british). on the left: algae sequin dress (2021) by phillip lim and charlotte mccurdy (textile manufactured by pyratex, spanish).

this is very interesting to read as it explains how stella mccartney and phillip lim are working with non-plastic alternatives to sequins and trims and describes how the effects of the two above dresses were created.

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a few photos when leaving the museum:

the gift shop is now selling mariebelle chocolates from soho (nyc soho chocolate shop) . . 

very pretty!

walking to a cafe for a bite to eat . . 

my friend's autumn alpine sweater designed by caitlin hunter. the yarn is moondrake spun by spincycle, colorway fairy godmother (the lavender) and ulysse (de rerum natura), colorway fusain. i love the colors.

advent and a field trip

 

the second light of advent is the light of plants,

plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.

 

because of the performance on sunday, we missed lighting our second advent candle and so lit it this morning. as you can see, it's been very grey in the mornings lately.

 

morgan's advent gifts from the calendar korrina made: a pretty mini-skein of yarn and rocher chocolate. 

make room for zuzu. she wants to read too.

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today at 12:30 we met my knitting friend evie at the FIT museum, the fashion institute of technology, to see two exhibits and the special collections room.

 

the first exhibit was titled shoes, anatomy, identity, magic - our anatomy determines how we walk and feel comfortable (or not!) in a pair of shoes which then influences our identity, how shoes make us feel about ourselves and how others see us, which can then lead to magic - how shoes help us feel special and transform us into a larger person than our normal self (dressing up in patent leather or heels with a particularly pretty dress that waits in our closet for a special occasion).

 

meeting evie in the lobby . . 

and joined by the rest of the knitting group.

 

the exhibit began with children's shoes. these black velvet ones were my favorite and were from england, (charlotte olympia, 2019).

chanel gold leather platform sneakers and a pair of black canvas converse (2013 and 1999).

ivory silk brocade shoes from england, circa 1775 - 1780.

our shoes - blundstones and doc martins.

fur and suede books (manolo blahnak, england, 1997) and brown suede embroidered boots (1970 from greece).

"pointe" shoe platforms worn by lady gaga for her music video marry the night (2011, pink suede) (it must have been like walking in a pair of stilts) and capezio pink satin pointe shoes from 1941 (they look so tame next to the lady gaga shoes).

beautiful black leather boots from austria (jack jacobus, ltd., 1895-1900), a gift from the victoria and albert museum. (i think these were my second favorite, after the black velvet cat slippers.)

the next exhibit was titled designing women: fashion creators and their interiors, representing important couture houses founded by women in paris, london and new york alongside the new field of interior decoration led by female innovators on both sides of the atlantic.

 

this first gown was worn by baroness pauline de rothschild and was made of black ribbed silk and green brocaded silk trimmed with feathers, 1892.

and here is a photo of the decorative floral mural she had rendered for her husband's ancestral home, chateau mouton, in france in 1954

designer alix grès  (1903-1993) known for her hand-pleated silk jersey "grecian" gowns, liked to design her interiors also in a neoclassical manner, which she filled with art and plants.

evening dress by alix grès, white silk jersey, paris, 1964.

anna sui (kaftan ensemble, red and gold embroidery, pink polyester blouse, red cotton velvet pants, new york, autumn 2012) in her home filled with books, artwork and dark wood paneling with painted flora and intricate designs.

day dress by barbara hulanicki (printed cotton voile, london, circa 1970) who ultimately left fashion design to become an interior decorator.

 

we next went upstairs to view periodicals and books in the special collections department with our host, fashion historian april.

april originally was an art history major who also completed a degree in appraisal studies at nyu and then realized she was most interested in fashion history. she wrote her graduate thesis on american fashion designer tina leser (1910-1986). the collection she helps coordinate is one of the most comprehensive in the country. they have 12,000 books with the earliest from 1590 and many current filmmakers make use of the information (such as baz luhrmann for when he was working on the great gatsby). they also recently had representatives from the met museum researching karl lagerfeld for their next gala in 2023. documentary filmmakers, broadway theatre costume designers and netflix movie costume designers have also been in. they have perfume manuals from marie antoinette's time and the toy design papers from the muppet style guide. here are several of the books and pamphlets she laid out for us to see:

our tour ended at 3 pm and as we gathered our coats and bags together and went out of the room, we passed a glass display case with various drawings, photos and books highlighting ballet costumes. i was very interested and quickly took a few pics before hopping onto the elevator before the doors closed.

it was fun to be on such an informative and interesting field trip again.

afterwards, we walked to the moynihan train hall to have lunch at the food hall there . . morgana and i hadn't visited it yet, though it was completed in 2020 and dedicated january 1, 2021.

 

it used to be our main post office with the famous saying etched on the front of it: "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." it might still be there. i actually didn't think to check.

actually, you can still see the post office phrase here in this photo, if you enlarge it.

it was quite impressive inside and fun to walk through (we were fortunate enough to find an empty table in the food hall) but you really don't need to walk through it to get on a train. you can access the trains and the ticket counters to long island and new jersey across the street, beneath madison square garden. penn station is still its dank and gritty and crowded self.

pennsylvania station beneath the garden . . the moynihan train hall is nice, but we can't forget the beautiful penn station that existed from 1910 to 1963.