feeding my soul

For the past few days, I have been feeling stuck. I was asked to give a D'var Torah this Shabbat. It ought to be an easy task for me, this week's reading is about the High Priest's vestments but my thoughts are all in a muddle.

There is some work I ought to be doing but again, I was feeling uninspired. It was time to visit my favorite NYC museum, the Museum at FIT.

The upstairs gallery was showing Fabrics in Fashion, the downstairs gallery was showing Exhibitionism 50 years of the museum at FIT.

Both exhibits were just a nice way to visit old friends from the FIT collection or from exhibits that I really enjoyed over the years.

These two Claire McCardle dresses were shown together to show how the same dress can be either a casual dress or a dressy one depending on the fabrication. The white printed cotton dress is for day and the bronze silk satin makes an elegant evening dress.

The smocking on this dress is mindblowing.

Seeing anything by Madame Gres always makes me happy ( the yellow pleated dress in the top photo and the blue dress in the center of the photo below)

She was a master of gathering masses of silk chiffon into elegant timeless dresses.

Here is another brilliant Claire McCardle.

Some of the garments made me recall the exhibits where I had first seen the garments.

This selection of garments came from an excellent recent exhibit on Paris clothing from 1957-67. I adored the exhibit because it brought back so many memories of my childhood.

Seeing the Norma Kamali Sleeping bag coat reminded me of how much I lusted after this coat (here in black and yellow but it came lined in a variety of primary colors).

I remember the coat as being far more oversized. There was a store near my first job that sold Norma Kamali samples at highly discounted prices. I tried on the sleeping bag coat again and again over a period of many weeks. I really wanted it. The price the store was asking was a really good one but it was too much of a financial stretch for me then. I have thought of that coat often and my lust for it. Seeing it today, I think I am finally OK with not having purchased it.

I own a Mugler dress of this era that I found in a local thrift store for $10. I haven't worn it for years but it is one of my favorite thrift store finds.

There were some things I had never seen before.

The cut of this dress was amazing.

As always the objects are displayed to lead you to make connections between ideas and themes expressed in clothing over the centuries, without being too preachy about it.

Behind this elegant Halston wrapped and tied dress is the pattern used to cut the dress.

I believe this pattern was placed on the fold of the fabric.

I am adding the next photos just because I found the garments appealing.

This Norell ensemble is called "the Subway Dress' I think because you could wear the coat buttoned up and look completely subway appropriate while on your way to a glamorous evening out.

When I got home I was ready to tackle sewing problem. Many years ago I had tried to hire people to work with me. Each of those attempts ended in disaster. I ended up with a small stack of ugly challah covers. every once in a while one of the ugly ones would turn up. I didn't want to throw the ugly work away. I had invested money and nice fabric but looking at the pieces made me unhappy.

I was finally ready to tackle one of them. The woman who had sewn the challah cover had chosen lettering that was far too small for the size of the piece. I couldn't sell it as it was.

I didn't take photos because looking at it made me too unhappy.

I painted the text on a piece of silk and stitched it over the bad lettering. The piece now works.