Category: Fashion

Manhattan: Politics, Fashion, & History

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VIEWING: UK POLITICAL CRISIS

COBRA (PBS)

Anna & the PM (rottentomatoes.com)

If you like political drama and were a fan of the Danish series, Borgen, then you’d probably also enjoy COBRA.  A massive geomagnetic storm knocks out power to the entire U.K., and there are not enough new transformers to replace all the damaged ones.  Which section of the country will have to wait?  It’s a monumental crisis for British prime minister Robert Sutherland and his team, including chief of staff Anna Marshall.   

This 6-part series is action packed with nail-biting tension and personal drama.  Who is the man who just shows up on Anna’s doorstep?  What really happened to Georgia, the best friend of Sutherland’s daughter?  How far will Home Secretary Archie Glover go in attempting to become the next PM?  Finally, how does the prime minister deal with rioting and destruction and calm the country?

The title, COBRA, stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room and is used as a code for an emergency meeting of the PM and all the cabinet secretaries.  There are some familiar faces from other British series such as Victoria Hamilton, the elegantly competent Anna, who appeared in The Crown and Lark Rise to Candleford.  

This is escapism that seems eerily possible! We binge watched Season 1, the first of three seasons.

EXHIBITION: EXOTIC FASHION

Sleeping Beauties (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Dior’s Garden with a floral theme

The Costume Institute’s annual exhibit opens after the Met’s May gala.  The gala is always an extravagant display of fabric, color, and celebrities.  The exhibit also sometimes wows but not always.  This year, I appreciated the effort that went into making the exhibit immersive with a wide array of dresses from various periods and designers, but also the incorporation of videos running overhead, voiceovers, and other sounds relative to the theme of individual galleries.  Water lapping in the marine sections, insects buzzing in the nature section and so on.  Nonetheless, it was not an exhibit I loved.

Clamshell gown by Alexander McQueen
Dramatic butterfly gown
Poppies or perhaps roses?

The first space was narrow and very crowded (even though I was there right after the museum opened), so I moved through quickly.  I looked at the fashions but did not do much reading of the descriptive wall plaques.  Overall, I got the general impression of the theme, but made short work of what is a long and large exhibit.  

The gowns here are ones I found particularly striking, several of them showcasing flowers. One does wonder whether a woman could move at all in some of these creations!

EXHIBITION: SNIPPETS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour (Museum of Modern Art)

Tucked away into a small gallery on MoMA’s second floor is Lessons of the Hour.  British filmmaker and artist, Isaac Julien uses ten video screens of different sizes to present scenes of Frederick Douglass’s life and work.  Douglass was a 19th century abolitionist, an orator, and an author.  A Black man, he was the most photographed person of his era.  

Douglass’s life is not depicted linearly, and different images and texts appear simultaneously on the various screens.  It is possible to stand in the gallery for just a few minutes or sit on the banquette long enough to absorb more of the role this man played in the overall quest for equal rights for all people.  A worthwhile experience and one that is available into September.

Note: Header photo is a more traditional yellow Liberty gown from the 1880’s. All unattributed photos by JWFarrington.

Of Fashion: Art & Drama

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FASHION GENIUS

Karl Lagerfeld:  A Line of Beauty

Floral dress for Fendi

The late Karl Lagerfeld was a giant in the world of fashion.  He designed for Chanel, Fendi, and his own studio.  The Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute exhibit, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, showcases his talent and his creativity in an almost endless series of beautiful ball gowns, funky and militaristic dresses and suits, and elaborately detailed wedding gowns.  

My favorite of his black dresses

He was a consummate sketcher, and it’s intriguing to see his freehand sketch of a design next to the finished product. 

For a black gown with a semi-train

 In the early galleries, there are also video interviews with several of his skilled seamstresses talking about what it was like to work from a sketch and how precise he was in what he wanted.  I would have liked to spend more time watching these videos, but I kept moving along.

Gold dress with gold metal

As one would expect, most of the clothes are black with white being the next dominant color; here and there are shades of pink or rose and only occasionally a blast of bold color.  One also sees gold fabric as well as gold accents or items depicted on a gown.

Bold use of objects on gowns
Design from the Pop-Art era

The Chief Penguin was somewhat reluctant to see this exhibit and indicated he would do part of it with me and then split off.  Instead, he too went through the many galleries, one of the sprinkling of males midst women of all ages.  

We didn’t use our preview day tickets so we ended up going another day and joining the virtual queue once inside the building.  I give the museum credit for managing interest this way.  We got text message confirmation of being in line and a notice of when it was our turn to enter the exhibit (essentially no wait then.)  If you are at all interested in high fashion, I recommend this exhibit.  I think it’s one of the best fashion ones I’ve seen here!

HIGH DRAMA—ROYAL STYLE

Queen Charlotte:  A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)

Mature Queen Charlotte in a fancy gown (People)

Although not explicitly about fashion, it’s hard to ignore the elaborate and beautiful gowns worn by the women in the Regency era.  And, if you watched any of the previous seasons of Bridgerton, you’d be familiar with the mature Queen Charlotte.  She was imperious, dictatorial, and not particularly likable.  She was also married to George III, known as “mad King George.”  

This new series gives us Charlotte’s backstory, how she was brought from Germany to marry George and to provide an heir.  

George & Charlotte

Their beginnings are not auspicious, and deviating from history, George is already suffering from mental illness, and his mother the dowager queen tries to control all.  The series is darker than the earlier Bridgertons with more depth as well as poignancy and pain. 

Mother-in-law and young Charlotte (Gold Derby)

In addition to Charlotte & George’s love story, there is romance between two male courtiers, and an exploration of both forced marriage and the loneliness of widowhood.  Lady Violet Bridgerton, mother of the young marrying Bridgertons, and Lady Agatha Danbury, a wise and elegant widow, reappear and one gets to know more about their earlier years and to participate in their growing friendship. 

Young Lady Danbury (Entertainment Weekly)

It’s also a lusty series (I thought about the “for mature audiences” warning from Call the Midwife) with plenty of bedroom scenes and lots of skin.  The Chief Penguin and I watched the entire six episodes over six nights and enjoyed it immensely.  It’s heartrending, touching, and complex.  Kudos to Shonda Rhimes, a very creative writer and producer.  Highly recommended!

Note: Lagerfeld photos by JWFarrington. Header photo was taken in the exhibit.

Manhattan: American Art & Fashion

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Winslow Homer:  Crosscurrents (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

We made two visits to the Met Museum this month.  The first was to see the very large and comprehensive exhibit of Winslow Homer’s work.  A New Englander by birth, Homer (1836-1910) lived in Boston and then in 1859 moved to New York.  Although associated rightfully with his portrayals of the sea, his work was much more than that.  He captured returning soldiers from the Civil War, both Black and white, and showed women at work or enjoying a day at the beach.  Added to that are his luminous watercolors depicting scenes from his trips to the Bahamas, Florida, and other islands.  It’s a wonderful exhibit!

Here are a few examples.

Early Morning after a Storm at Sea, 1900-1903
Eagle Head, Manchester Massachusetts, 1870
Old Mill (The Morning Bell), 1871

In America:  An Anthology of Fashion (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

On our second visit, the Chief Penguin re-visited the Homer exhibit and spent time in the Annenberg Wing admiring the simply marvelous collection of Impressionist paintings.  I missed seeing the first part of the Costume Institute’s fashion exhibit for 2021 but decided to tour this year’s part two which is housed in the American Wing.  

I had never spent any time in this section, but it consists of a series of period rooms from the early 19th century to the 1950’s.  For this exhibit, various curators have dressed manikins in fashions related to the rooms’ furnishings from Shaker Retiring Room to Richmond parlor to 20th century ballroom.  This is not as showy exhibit as some of those of previous years, but interesting, nonetheless.  With the right inclination, one could spend a fair bit of time reading all the information about the setting of the room itself and then the fashion-related labels. 

Shaker Woman, early 1800’s
High style in the 1950’s

Note: Header photo is Winslow Homer’s Oranges on a Branch, 1885. Photos by JWFarrington.

Manhattan Musing: Campy

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Camp: Notes on Fashion

This year’s Fashion Institute exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is all about camp from the early days of dandyish gay men to its adoption by women in outlandish and outrageous gowns and shoes.

There’s low camp and high camp and camp that is somewhat subtle and that that is deliberate. This exhibit, with its rosy pink halls and its black gallery with mannequins in colorful light boxes, is exuberant, fun, and even silly. Everyone should find something to enjoy including in the background a recording of Judy Garland singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”

One man, a staff member perhaps, dressed in sweater and shoes to match the walls.

Is she dressed to emulate the lampshade? Probably.
Style a la Warhol




Genderless fashion
Enough said

One example of the light boxes
A particularly beautiful gown