New York City à la Dorée, Part Two: Fashion Exhibitions, the Garment District and "Street"

 New York's museums are world class, and this was certainly evident during my visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

At the "Met," I went to Andrew Bolton's show in the Costume Institute called "Manus X Machina." It explored the intersection of hand and machine work in fashion design with many amazing examples.

The show opened with this wedding gown, with the explanation following:

In this garment, it's hard to tell what was done by hand, and what done by machine!

Here are two Dior gowns from 1952-3, machine sewn and hand finished:

I didn't note the creators of these magnificent gowns:

This Proenza Schuler dress fabric was created with sequins glued on end instead of flat!

And this Iris van Herpen fabric is made from iron filings on neoprene (scuba diving fabric) dusted with dried enamel paint:

Gareth Pugh made these dresses from 3000 plastic drinking straws, each cut individually by hand. There was a swishy rustle when they were worn:

In a section devoted to pleats, two gowns from the 50's by Madame Gres were contrasted by Iris van Herpen's pleats created by a digital 3-D printer. The material is goatskin, believe it or not!

Following are three examples of laser-cut "new" lace:

Proenza Schuler

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

Raf Simmons for Dior

Check out this dress by Junya Watanabe:

Machine sewn, heat molded polyester satin---what inventiveness!

The show at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Museum was called "Uniformity," and explored the relationship between uniforms and fashion.

Army jackets become street clothes. On the left is a Marc Jacobs.

Vera Maxwell "speed dress:" "Just pull it on," she instructed.

Oscar de la Renta and Jean Paul Gautier play around with sailor uniforms.

Karl Lagerford (Chanel) did a riff on a French brasserie waiter's uniform.

And finally:

From a World War I army uniform.I want to try to make this!!!

In the garment district, I visited fabric stores, and had a visual and tactile feast.

Next I went to the made-famous-by-Project-Runway Mood Fabrics. I took a picture of the store mascot, Swatch:

He's not very lively these days....

Finally, the real entertainment in New York comes from The Street. Here are my photos, a poor homage to the late and great Bill Cunningham, street photographer extraordinaire. He passed away a few weeks ago, age 87, after photographing street style for The New York Times for 33 years!

The famous department store Bergdorf Goodman devoted a window to Bill Cunningham's memory, corner of 5th Ave. and 57th Street.

On the way to the Church Street subway in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

In DUMBO, "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"

Another DUMBO view: framing the Empire State Building!

Finally, a series of REAL NY "street." Enjoy!

In the subway

The End!