Six Six Sick: Exhibitions

Showing posts with label Exhibitions. Show all posts

Monday, April 30, 2012

Costume Drama

A costume from The Brothers Lionheart. Photos by Carl Thorborg.

I have long overlooked Dansmuseet, Stockholm's museum dedicated to all forms of dance, and probably wouldn't have made a visit if it weren't for my friend Gabi's urgings. One of Stockholm's partially free museums (you have to pay extra for the temporary shows), the majority of the permanent exhibitions focus on the museum's extensive collection of costumes from all over the world, and is the closest thing we have to a costume institute in these parts. In fact, the current special exhibition on display, Koroly's Costume Drama, is one of the most exciting sartorial installations I've ever seen.

The breathtaking survey of Swedish-American costume designer Charles Koroly's work features a wide span of pieces, ranging from surreal human-puppet costumes made for The Brothers Lionheart, to classic French rococo attire made for a production of Madame de Sade. Each piece is incredibly constructed, and one of the most impressive highlights is a costume for The Brothers Lionheart that involves a metal cage skirt covered in floral branches, and is so large and unwieldy that it has its own set of wheels built into the hemline so it can be rolled along with the performer on stage. What makes the show particularly special is the fact that visitors are actually allowed to touch all of the garments on display, allowing curious couture students to thoroughly examine the construction and enjoy every aspect of illusion creation. That's a privilege that would be hard to find anywhere else.

Costumes from The Brothers Lionheart

A costume from Aurum

Costume from The Brothers Lionheart

Costume from Erik XIV

Costumes from Madame de Sade

Costume from The Brothers Lionheart

Costume from The Misanthrope

Costumes from Richard III

Costume for Twelfth Night

-Tiffany

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Good Sport

All photos by Beit Ha'ir

A few weeks ago, a received an email from my friend Daniel Palillo announcing his participation in a F? A Year of Fashion in at Beit Ha'ir, a museum in Tel Aviv. While Tel Aviv is a little bit off the map fashion wise, I was incredibly impressed with the ambitious year long show that the museum's curators put together, tapping both Israeli and international designers to create a series of temporary exhibitions. The roster is impressive, including threeASFOUR, Boudicca, Anne Valerie Hash, and Vibskov and Emenius, in addition to Daniel.

While I had a difficult time navigating the website, as I can't read Hebrew, I only had to look at the photographs to see that they had put on a spectacular opening, which included a fashion show of Daniel's sport and cartoon inspired Spring collection of adult and children's clothes. Most impressive was a special video made for the exhibition, featuring the Bney Yehuda soccer team, whose members were decked out in custom made Daniel Pallilo outfits. I'm not usually a fan of sports, or fashion videos for that matter, but this one is particularly riveting, and definitely worth viewing. And, if you do find yourself in Tel Aviv, the show will be going on with rotating exhibitions through the end of the year.

Daniel Palillo video collaboration with Bney Yehuda football team, was created by Matan Guggenheim and Daniel Kutz.

-Tiffany

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Hats Off To Stephen Jones

Swing, Stephen Jones, Autumn/Winter 2007

On Tuesday morning, I took a break from the Fashion Week madness and headed uptown to the Bard Graduate Center for a press preview of the new exhibition, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones. I must not have read my invitation very well, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when I arrived for a tour of the gallery, and found that the tour was administered by Stephen Jones himself. The exhibition, which was a collaboration between the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Stephen Jones, is essentially the realization of the book of the same name, providing a sweeping history of the millinery canon. Spanning from a twelfth-century Egyptian Fez hat, to a recent creation by up and coming designer Nasir Mazhar, the exhibition covers all bases, with plenty of relevant Stephen Jones hats interspersed between.

I am an owner of the aforementioned book, and a obsessive hat wearer, so attending the exhibition made me feel like I had died and gone to hat heaven. The show spans three floors, and is divided into sections meant to display the process of creating hats, the way that they are worn, and the clients who are wearing them. One of the greatest highlights is the recreation of Jones's original studio, complete with a small Stephen Jones doll that Philip Treacy made for him after he had finished his apprenticeship. The exhibition also includes the winner of the Talenthouse contest that I posted about earlier, Aliona Kononova, who made a spectacular dandelion shaped hat out of metal wire and magnets. I asked Jones how he selected the winner out of the five-hundred entrants, and he said that after a very difficult two day process, but Kononova's design was selected because of its hopeful and optimistic feel, and sound looking construction, which he could only judge from the photograph. I unfortunately could not get a good photo of Kononova's design, so you will have to stop by the show yourself to take a look at it, along with the hundreds of other jaw-dropping hats on display. The show runs until April 15th of next year.

Stephen giving the tour of the exhibition.

A doll that Philip Treacy made of Stephen Jones after finishing his apprenticeship with him.

A recreation of the Stephen Jones millinery studio

James Lock & Co. Ltd Conformator and brow hat machines that were used to measure a person's head and create a perfect custom hat pattern to fit their head shape. To the left of the machine are pieces some hat patterns from James Lock's famous customers, including one that belonged to Jackie O.