Fashioning Fashion

Jeudi 14 mars Fashioning Fashion musee des arts Decoratifs

Thursday I dragged myself out of bed for an infusion of French culture and ran to my fav musee des arts Decoratif. How else to keep up with all that's going on in Paris?

One can not loll around in bed for long in this town without missing out on a slew of things. I'll quote liberally from the museum's website:

Les Arts Décoratifs is hosting a prestigious exhibition previously shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from 2 October 2010 to 27 March 2011, and at the Deutsch Historisches Museum in Berlin from 27 April to 29 July 2012. Fashioning Fashion: Two Centuries of European Fashion 1700–1915 celebrates LACMA’s acquisition of the remarkable collections of Martin Kamer and Wolfgang Ruf, both antique dealers and collectors of ancient costumes and fabrics. Their collections reflect the principal trends in fashion in Europe from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Presented chronologically and thematically, almost a hundred complete male and female outfits, mainly from France, England and Italy and all with their accessories, retrace the evolution of vestimentary taste, forms and techniques. Voila.

I must say the exhibit brought out a number of political thoughts I wasn't aware I was harboring...

So much lace, buttons and bows

All sweetness and delicacy on the surface.

But appearences are deceptive are they not?

Below the decorative buttons and bows torture.

Women's bodies pushed and contorted into all kinds of strange uncomfortable shapes. Necks stretched. Waists yanked in with stays. Hair piled high. Ouch.

True we may currently look like walking sacks of potatoes but so be it.

Now we can eat cake and not have to look like an iced wedding cake. HURRAH for that! Still it's worth seeing Fashioning Fashion to remember how lucky we are.