CAMP, too far? The MET GALA 2019

how can I resist opening the pages of little augury to bring my favorite CAMP looks from the Met's pink carpet?
many looks just seemed a bit too far, lost was the idea of style—

can CAMP be too tacky? I think yes, is the answer.

Subtly is my preferred CAMP, tongue in cheek...

Curator Andrew Bolton says why "camp is impossible to define."
just so...

 Carey Mulligan in Prada

 Gal Gadot in Givenchy

 Edie Campbell with Molly Goddard wearing Molly Goddard

unCamp, & incredible,
a deep cleansing breath...

 an ethereal Billie Lourd in Zac Posen

no apologies, Katie Holmes in Zac Posen masterpiece

MET dressed

heavenly bodies amongst a sea of sinners

greta gertwig in the row

alicia vakander in louis vuitton 

mackenzie davis in chloe

imaan hamman in zac posen

Sir Francis Bacon helps interpret Avant-Garde

& the work of Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo 

“Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between at the Met

 Anna Cleveland-At the Met Gala, in Comme des Garçons, avant-garde and beautiful.

1st image a screenshot from vogue.com by Taylor Jewel

photograph of Anna Cleveland at vogue uk here

just for a moment

too irresistible not to post on the most lovely MET GALA frocks.
not enough time or ill will to post about the others...

 1st

 a cleansing breath

Maggie Q in Tory Burch

Liya Kebede in Phillip Lim

2 

on message

the exhibition: China through the looking glass

Bee Shaffer in Alexander McQueen

 Lauren Santo Domingo in Proenza Schouler

 

3

Reality Check

apparently VOGUE doesn't know who this couple is, here captured by photographer PHIL OH, but they should hunt them down for a story on How to Look Better than any Celebrity at the Met Gala.

pictures are from Vogue.com

the MET SET Beyond Fashion

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Cecil Beaton gloriously captured Charles James ball gowns in 1948.

from The Met here

Not to be remiss in a posting on the MET GALA, and the new ANNA WINTOUR COSTUME CENTER...Nothing gets one's twitter feed, facebook, and instagram stalled like the MET event. The naming of the center even gets batted around. The Costume Institute got underway through Diana Vreeland's chutzpah with help from Babe Palely and other swans. She had glamourized these women and helped create the legends that now exist around them-so it was her turn.We can thank them, and well, if Mrs.Vreeland had done the naming She too-would have named it ...THE DIANA VREELAND....

The red carpet rush was full of glamour, glitz- push-along with the ghastly.
But isn't that the way?
As I tried to point out to a raucous twitter person-(She wrote: "the Met Ball has been forever sullied by the pedestrian narcissist Wintour. No style. All ego. Trashy guests.")- the great benefit of the ball is the-thousands+++ thousands+++, and more,that will see Charles James: Beyond Fashion and marvel over his gowns, his construction, and his fine details.

Every last  inch of Charles James will be scrutinized- little secrets exposed- hems will be lifted and Charles James will no doubt be #'ed to death. That is why a MET GALA exists for the likes of Me, and for the MET SET, #EXPOSURE. Celebrities and models flock and an occasional society maven glides in sans red carpet. Anna Wintour has changed the landscape-and the Costume Institute thrives-and without the power of Vogue magazine (to which I no longer subscribe #agedoutof & the website features are great)- it was just survive amongst the sea of galas & benefits.

Zac Posen did three of these ball gowns, seems he has the Charles James touch at the moment, though it's noted that Harvey Weinstein has struck a deal with the James estate to have his wife's Marchesa brand retained as creative consultants-along with all that entails. (read more at Page SIX here). Marchesa does make beautiful dresses- but the Charles James touch wasn't evident from Marchesa last night.

 Bee Shafer in McQueen & Suki Waterhouse in  Burberry (at right) making a Charles James moment at the MET

 Undoubtedly The Dress of the Evening as Homage to Charles James- 

Dita von Teese in, and with, Zac Posen, wearing a very fine manteau.

Italian designers Dolce and Gabbana do know how to make an entrance-
conjuring Winterhalter or Visconti's The Leopard. 

Tabitha Simmons in Dolce Gabanna

Evening Gloves

 There was never a better evening for opera gloves. 

 I love them.

I missed the Charles James era.

Model Fei Fei Sun, Marina Rust and Tory Burch, & below-yes that's Katie Couric

Some people-and not just those at the MET Gala-always look well dressed-polished-turned out perfectly.
  
Last night...

 Mario Testino-with decorations, badges-He is OBE- Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - here with Stella Tennant-who always looks right.



Benedict Cumberbatch

The Beckhams

Stephanie Seymour

Hailee Steinfeld wearing, and with Prabal Gurung

Lily Aldridge in Michael Kors

...& Always.

Nancy Lee Gregory James, Charles James wife, photographed by Cecil Beaton

 Lauren Santo Domingo wearing Oscar de la Renta and below The Herreras

Stella Tennant, wearing Burbery- in repose at the Met Ball

for me -actress Maggie Q came away as Best Dressed for the evening.

Wearing Zac Posen, 

she looked to be a 21st century Charles James creation poised on the steps with him just before his 1950 collection debuted.

after hearing it all, No, not so-but enough about what Charles James would think, etc. etc....

Undoubtedly the perfectionist himself would have lots to say-about Charles James- because HE- & now- everyone knows -Charles James is Beyond Fashion.

in anticipation of...

.Charles James at the Met, of course.

“Millicent Rogers inspired [James] more than anyone. “He felt that she could help him to resolve a design when he wasn’t certain how to finish it.” Nancy Lee Gregory James, (Charles James' wife)

The Exhibition devoted to Charles James begins at the MET, May 8th.  The MET GALA on Monday, May 5.

Millecent Rogers photographs from the pages of The Genius of Charles James.

patchwork adoration reprise xii

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to those dissenters, what's not to Love? 

Patchwork Dressing Gown, 1825, tiny hand worked stitches of roller pattern prints, The Met

from the MET: The dressing gown featured here is an extraordinary piece of hand work. The use of many different lively roller print patterns gives it an eye popping appeal and makes this piece a sampler of the various patterning from this period. Roller printing was introduced and then patented in 1783 in an attempt to reduce the cost of copperplate printing as well as to ease the printing process of small, repeat patterns.



 text of this post linked to the MET

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MET meets Twelfe Night, Or What You Will

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A week long trip to New York culminated with a trippingly on the tongue production of Shakespeare's Twelfe Night on Broadway. The Globe Theatre's troupe is putting on a show-and I do mean a show-it's stellar- exultant.

Time at the Met is always important when I'm in New York. I never cease to be awed by the collections. Their Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800 Exhibition is one not to be missed. I am often discussing the overlap-the sharing-the trading of countries to my clients. China creating Chinese porcelains for the French- Palampore textiles sent from India to the European market.  
It's the exchange of these cultural gifts that makes a room-a design- exciting-and invariably authentic. 

"When in France-do as the Chinese do"-or something like that. 

AT the MET

(all selections below are from the MET Exhibition site, and linked to each work in my text)

 

Joshua Reynolds paints Mrs Baldwin, British subject born in Turkey, in the style popular with women of the 18th century- a la Turk.

 Mirror with intricate stitching framed in tortoise-English 1672

The power of  the Past-the AUTHENTIC-is, well-powerful. Surprisingly, this is the Met's first major exhibition devoted to the grand tour of textile design over three centuries. 
It is something to see-it is stellar- exultant-
 

 Chinese hanging made for the European market, second half of the 18th century, Qing Dynasty

Morning gown made in Japan especially for Dutch traders, early 1700's

Robe à la Française, 1755 French or Dutch, restyle in 1770.

A rare silk European quilt with a masted ship in its center, 17th century

Robe à la Française,Chinese silk made for the French market, c. 1770

AT the THEATRE

 

Paul Chahidi as Maria in Twelfe Night at the Belasco Theatre

Get thee to the Belasco-and get there early. The Globe Theatre's Shakespearean troupe is getting into costume and makeup on stage in front of the audiences very eyes each night before one of their two alternating productions at the Belasco Theatre. A sight to behold, the company is doing it all authentically-just as if Shakespeare was watching from the wings. It's mesmerizing to see the pains these actors-an all male cast-go through to become the ladies of Shakespeare's Twelfe Night. Dressers discreetly tuck, trim, sew and lace actors into ruffs, cuffs, skirts-not to mention spackle and powder them into mask like Elizabethan maquillage. There's no other way of saying it-it's as authentic as it gets.

 Mark Rylance being womanized

Before...

and Aft.

"And all is semblative a woman's part." WS- Twelfe Night

Mark Rylance as the mourning and lovesick Olivia

The costumes-too-are equally authentic-painstakingly so. All the materials for them have been matched closely in fiber content to what was available in London during the 1590's and 1600's. Layers-linen to start for both men, and men playing women- followed by a farthingale, a silk petticoat, a corset, a gown, a neck ruff, wrist ruffs, a girdle, stockings and garters but only for the lady men. They must feel duly womanized by the time the play begins.

 In addition to these trappings-Countess Olivia-played by Rylance, a performance not to be topped I say, dons a silk veil, coronet, lace hat, a jeweled head-tyre, a wire rebato, white gloves with jet beading, a silk velvet cloak, sleeve panels and an embroidered  forepart-hand made, or hand stitched or both-of course.

Portait of Anna Rosina Tanck,1642 painted by Michael Hirt, (in a wired rebato)

Authenticity is the byword of the Met's exhibition-Shakespeare's Twelfe Night, and this fall's New York trip on a whole.
Oh-
I did get to see her too-and it doesn't get much more real than that.
She, by the way, is playing at the Frick.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring, by Vermeer

 "Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis."

about the play's costumes: from the Playbill notes by Jenny Tiramani, Designer
images of the play from Broadway.com, NY Times, NY Daily News, Portland Theatre Scene
Interwoven Globe at the Met here
Broadway's Twelfe Night  here



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