Alexander McQueen + the MET = Dilemma.
January 17th, 2011 § 5 Comments
Upon surfing through my Sunday NYTimes this morning, fully aware that I am a day late, I also realize that I am about two months behind on the news. On November 11th, 2010, the Met issued a press release about an upcoming exhibit: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, May 4, 2011–July 31, 2011. How I could have missed this news baffled me, though it shouldn’t.
I don’t think I have been on my A game, for a while, and then upon hearing recent news, I think I’ve sort of fallen off the inspiration wagon.
My sister and I have talked a number of times about branding in fashion, most recently about the Spring 2011 McQueen collection, the first by Sarah Burton. Of course this collection was bound to be under great scrutiny. People wanted to know if Sarah Burton would be able to live up to and continue the vision, artistry, raw imagination, and workmanship of Lee Alexander McQueen. Her collection was recognized as meeting these goals, though, both my sister and myself felt it was a regurgitation of Lee’s ideas, and cleverly masked the insecurity of the line’s new designer in rich textiles, attention to detail and exquisite tailoring, also things we had seen before, but expect, as we should from the McQueen line. All this being said, I honestly feel that the line should have, well, been laid to rest in the wooden box alongside its visionary, creator, and proprietor. Never content with making fashion for fashion’s sake, his voice has changed in his death and he is now, merely, and sadly a brand. No longer art. It will be a long time before we see that much true creativity, artistry, vision and workmanship in fashion, and ultimately, modern art.
I am currently trudging my way through Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson. It’s not that it’s that bad, it’s just not that good. I found it at the library a week ago in the “bestseller” area, clearly, misfiled if you ask me. The author interjects his opinions in the weirdest places, I don’t think you were actually there buddy, so why tell just this one paragraph like you were, and all the others like your not. The flow is a bit catty-wham-pus for my taste, and it seems like the content could be written in such an exciting way, and it is just not. I just finished reading a section regarding the wardrobe and how Audrey, and Holly, made modern fashion accessible to all, not just the elite. But, I don’t know that she made fashion accessible, I think that she made specifically style, and the essence of chic accessible. I think that true fashion, and style are different things. Style can become a brand, but art can never be. Just look at what Andy Wharhol did with brands and he is still, and will always be seen as an artist.
The article in the NYTimes that indicated that I do, in-fact, live under a rock, and enlightened me to the upcoming McQueen exhibit at The MET, shared my opinion on fashion, brands and commodity as being, not one in the same. Apparently the brand Alexander McQueen can be sustained from creating one-off pieces for ladies with high bank rolls, dresses costing upwards of $30,000 each.
I am sick of seeing the LV insignia bags. I don’t want compromise in art or artistic vision for everyone to be able to buy something “authentic.” I wish there were more separation between fashion (art)—so little of it that there truly is—and “style.”
Appropriately featured, the Alexander McQueen exhibit will be opening May 4th and running through July 31st. Ironically, I received a promotion from Virgin America Airlines this morning, before learning of the exhibit, advertising fares through mid may from SFO to NYC for $139 (before taxes, fees, snacks and movies). So now comes the great question, do I fork over the $300, find a couch to surf on, grab the bull by its horns and fly out for one night for, perhaps, the only chance I will ever receive to see, in person, the amazing work of Alexander McQueen?
And if I do go, what do I wear?
Even though I drove 800 miles for real Alexander McQueen fabric, this, sadly, I think is outside of my budget …
Images in this post are from Vogue, July 2010, United States: A Noble Farewell for Alexander McQueen by Annie Leibovitz
Cutting (in) Class. Day 22.
September 20th, 2010 § 1 Comment
I can’t believe it. I have only two things left to do for Ramon and Nicole’s new website, and then I will be done with my first major website where I have done all of the coding (properly enough) with javascript and css. The two things I have left are: 1. The About Nicole written section, and 2. Blog entries for the Projects, Custom Tools and “Blog” sections. Wow, what a lot of work, but so much I have learned!
Speaking of learning, I am not sure that my pattern-making class is all that I had hoped for. See, I thought that pattern-making and pattern-drafting were the same thing, but I may have been confused. My pattern-making class doesn’t actually go over any actual drafting. We merely take existing, correctly made pattern block sets, trace and , cut them out, and manipulate them. Granted this is extremely useful stuff to know, I just hoped their would be a little more meet to the class, like Gaga’s dress: a big fat steak to-go hat and everything. I don’t want to learn to just manipulate, I want to make! I guess any teenage girl knows that both are useful skills. I think I missed that step. Where was I? Oh, I think I was making things.
So, maybe my having taught drafting classes at a college level before isn’t helping me either. The fact that I can get through the entire week’s worth of homework every week, in just under and hour, while everyone else is struggling to do it in 8, says something. Are my expectations to high? Am I used to the Academy of Art’s rigorous training programs? (While it might be easy to get into, it’s awfully hard to stay there). So, as Jury Duty approaches next week, followed by my upcoming contract, I may have some decisions to make.
Out of respect for Lee McQueen, and his memorial service today, I wore my McQueen brass square-toe, patten leather, pink leather bottomed pumps to class today. An act which was lost on just about everyone there, though I got, I dare say, a lot of looks. Come on fashion students!! You should be able to name the designer, name the season, and name the collection, all while knowing which other designers were influeced by THESE VERY SHOES, and what seasons they came out with their interpretations!!! Again, maybe my expectations are just too high.
Though, I am startled and surprised—in a good way—about a few of my class-mates, one in particular. She’s from the UK and is interested in making childrens’ garments. OH HOW LOVELY, and what a task. Those rolly-polly little suckers do a lot of squirming around. Seems like it would be hard to get measurements off of them, but I think that once you did, you’d be set for a least a month, or maybe three-weeks, until they grow again. My class-mate has a particular toddler sweater that she loves from J. Crew. Well, after a quick search through one of my favorite websites, ravelry.com, I came across a pattern that is quite similar, though sized for a baby, and not a child. Would be pretty simple to change, oh, and I found the book, and the pattern, on Amazon.com, too. Thank you very much “Look Inside” feature!
Ok, ok. I guess I should get cracking on the website so that I can get back to sewing. I am dieing to get two pairs of leggings drafted and made ASAP. (Insert laughing at, not with, here).
Sad Stories about Knitting for Men
September 1st, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I have been so focused on coding the website that I am working on, that I didn’t even realize the all out assault—usually reserved for the Sunday New York Times Paper Boy—against my front door was staged by the Amazon.com delivery man (well, USPS, but Amazon sounds like more of an adventure, and besides, that is where I ordered the book from).
To my delight, Knits Men Want by Bruce Weinstein arrived as planned. I saw this book a few months ago, right after I got laid off, when I was Father’s Day shopping for my Dad at Book Shop Santa Cruz. Because I had just gotten laid off I didn’t want to spend money on anything that I didn’t absolutely need. However, as the months past, I couldn’t stop thinking about the great pieces in the book. My mother and I have this theory, that if you find something you like in a store, often times if you just carry it around long enough while you are still IN the store, by the time you are heading for the register you come to realize that you no longer *need* that object, and while you may still like it, you’ve moved on. This technique has saved my mother and I probably thousands of dollars, though, I am sure it has created thousands of go-back for the poor, unsuspecting retail staff. Sorry!
I have been carrying this book around in my mind since June, and haven’t been able to put it down. For just under $13 on Amazon, Ramon informed me it wasn’t a frivolous purchase, because it was patterns of things to create, not just an “object” to sit on the coffee table until I get tired of it. With the holidays approaching, I would like to knit something for Ramon for Christmas, even though I have just started Project Hallway, too. I think I can do it, or maybe I am just insane. However, knitting for men isn’t easy.
As I sat down just afternoon to begin pouring through the patterns before selecting yarn online—which I doubt I will order, because I prefer going to the local yarn shop and touching everything—I felt a strong connection with the opening paragraph of the Introduction:
“It’s 6 p.m. on a Thursday evening in early fall. My class at Sit-N-Knit, a spacious and welcoming yarn shop in Bloomingfield, Connecticut, is filling up—ten women have come to learn how to knit sweaters from the top down. Each one is knitting a sweater for herself, and each seems to have a sad story to tell about her experiences knitting for a man in her life.”
I think that this book and I are going to get along JUUUUUUUST fine! I have hope!
Also on the list for tonight are finalizing the pattern for the pink raglan, and finishing the front piece … The front and the back are more than half-way done. I just needed to sit and do the math to try to figure out the stitches for the raglan shape. I think I will throw together a muslin really quickly to make sure that it is, in fact, going to work.
… Speaking of math … I went to the class last night and dropped it immediately when I got home. I have already sold the text book via Amazon—oh how I love Amazon—and shipped it out. The professor didn’t speak English very well, and had a very thick accent. I could feel the frustration in my rising up and boiling over during the 3 hour period I was in class. Math scares me, almost as much as the dentist. I’d like to approach it in a friendly, open way, and this does not include a teacher that I simply can’t understand. I cannot bare the thought of coming home every Monday for the next 16 weeks looking to pick a fight because I can’t hold back the anger of math. Oh well, maybe next semester.
