1. Charles James Ball Gowns, 1948 Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art,Photograph by Cecil Beaton / Vogue / Condé Nast Archive. Copyright © Condé Nast
Metropolitan Museum – Charles James: Beyond Fashion Exhibition
The ultra-glamorous Charles James: Beyond Fashion Exhibition is set to open next week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – Anna Wintour Costume Center but social media is all agog over the Met Gala that will be taking place this upcoming Monday, May 5th prior to it’s official opening on Thursday, May 8th.
Unlike last year, the 2014 Met Gala has a dress code and seeing how many guests actually abide by the rules will be keeping a multitude of fashion critics, commentators, pundits, bloggers and curious observers, like me, glued online Monday evening ☺
However, I digress… Charles James, the Anglo-American couturier created masterpieces and this glorious exhibition is dedicated to exploring his legendary and forwarding thinking designs.
As the Met synopsis of the exhibit states:
“…His fascination with complex cut and seaming led to the creation of key design elements that he updated throughout his career: wrap-over trousers, figure-eight skirts, body-hugging sheaths, ribbon capes and dresses, spiral-cut garments, and poufs. These, along with his iconic ball gowns from the late 1940s and early 1950s—the “Four-Leaf Clover,” “Butterfly,” “Tree,” “Swan,” and “Diamond”…”
More than seventy of Charles James’s extraordinary designs will be presented in the new Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery in the Anna Wintour Costume Center as well as special exhibition galleries on the Met’s first floor.
For the Met’s full social media coverage information details click here.
Also, here is a VIDEOFASHION! clip from the 1982 Brooklyn Museum’s retrospective of James’s work with comments from his former assistant Halston…
You can also watch this video about the complexity of a Charles James creation here as well as read about his mercurial temperament here in this article from Vogue.
Definitely, this exhibition should be on your “must-see” list before it closes on August 10, 2014.