A blog, mostly about my work making Jewish ritual objects, but with detours into garment making, living in New York City, cooking, and other aspects of domestic life.
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Two exhibits at FIT
It has been a while since I had been to the museum at FIT. I just finished a couple of project and it is time to get cracking on some new ones. So before I staple myself to the sewing machine I went out into the beautiful weather to feed my soul at FIT.
The upstairs exhibit space was showing Black Fashion Designers. It wasn't enough of a unifying concept for an exhibit, but it was an opportunity to see lots of really great garments. This Patrick Kelly dress opened the exhibit.
using the shape of tribal wear but in non traditional fabrics
Forgive me, I assumed that all of the documentation about who the designers are would be on the website. That isn't the case, I am sorry that I do not have attributions.
Awesome ombre dyed cape made out of macramed silk cording
Worn by black models in the 1970's and still chic today.
I love this deconstructed coat.
Disco era dress with mirrored discs.
Some garment played either with actual African textiles or the idea of those textiles
The face done in fringe! Amazing!
I would wear the 1973 red wrap top Scott Barrie dress in a heart beat.
This white draped and gathered dress was made by Epperson of Project Runway fame
I then made my way to the Paris Refashioned exhibit. It felt like I was going through a chic-er version of my mother's closet. So many of the garments were deeply familiar to me.My mother and her cohorts wore knock offs of these garments, though I suspect that some of my mother's friends may have worn the originals.
These two dresses began the exhibit. I remember my mother wearing a dress similar to the black one. The black and white is from the late 1950's but could have been worn as a chic dress every year since it was made. you can't see it in the photo but it is a highly textured mohair.
My mother owned (and I inherited) a charcoal grey knock off version of the white Balenciaga coat.My mother owned coats similar to the purple mohair, and I saw lots of these coats on grownups.
I remember dresses like these from my early childhood.
The gold brocade dress came with a matching swing coat. The little black shift anticipates the waistless look of the 1960's Don't you just love the jewels at the hip?
I lightened this image so you could see the great draping on the black dress. That means that you can't see the TDF embroidery on the gold and white dress as well as you might. Both these dresses were way more chic than I saw in my childhood.
I love how the exhibit designers put the dresses with the subtle cut outs together.
I remember chic young women wearing knock of versions of both the printed coat and the coat and dress outfit. Patch pockets! Dyed to match buttons!.
A back view of the printed coat and a back view of an Easter egg colored coat.
These dresses are from the early 1960's. You could have worn the black dresses until the mid 1970's. my mother wore versions of the red Miss Dior printed silk dress until the end of her life.
two coats of fabulousness.
The red pleated outfit is from 1963. The skirted outfits are what I wore all through high school.
All three are wearable today, not necessarily by me, but by a cute young someone
I would wear either of these dresses right now.
The red dress is wearable today, minus the head schmatta.
I saw women wearing versions of these dresses at bar-mitzvahs and weddings into the mid 1970's
This Pierre Cardin is wonderful. It was way racier than anything people in the circles i hung out in wore.
Again, clothing from the early 1960's that became the uniform from women into the mid 1970's
Just one small section of dresses looked locked into ther time line.
MAM you would have loved this show. One of the things that makes this show different than so many shows about fashion is that this is the wearable stuff, not the outrageous that pushed the limits but the clothing that real people wore. I am sure that if you went through this show it would have reminded you of favorite garment from the era.
A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...
My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...
wish I could see this one in person but your photos are great, as is the link on FB - thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMAM you would have loved this show. One of the things that makes this show different than so many shows about fashion is that this is the wearable stuff, not the outrageous that pushed the limits but the clothing that real people wore. I am sure that if you went through this show it would have reminded you of favorite garment from the era.
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