She Walks in Beauty: At the Met Museum
The "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" opening today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a grand retrospective of the creator's career.
Over 75 of the couturier's masterpieces are on view, including hats, forms, and photographs documenting James' corpus.
Two separate exhibitions, one in the new Costume Institute and the other across the hall, comprise the overall sprawling exhibition.
James's work spans from the 1920's to his death in 1978.
Beginning his career in London, and then moving onto Paris, the designer arrives in New York in 1940.
Designing at a time when many a fashion icon flourishes, Charles James was in the right place at the right time - a perfect zeitgeist.
The designer "considered himself an artist," says the Met's director Thomas Campbell, "approaching fashion with a sculptor's eye and a scientist's logic.
To me, an artist approaches beauty with the understanding that a certain balance of form and elegance hangs in the lurch.
That there needs to be an underlying harmony between the form, the body upon which a dress fits, and the cloth itself -is the test of real fashion beauty.
Sartorial elegance comes packaged and is party to both the individual donning the dress and the costume itself.
It is, if you will, a partnership.
One of the exhibit's curators notes that "James was an artist who chose fabric and its relationship to the human body as his medium of expression.
" Granted James created in an age of opulence, granted that many of the exhibited dresses are ball gowns, and granted that the chosen creations, here, are among his most famous,the question of whether more fabric, more swirls and twists on the bias, more poufs and gatherings contributes to the greatness of a work of art is seminal.
James' fashions are glamorous.
It is an understatement to deny the fullness of his fashion sense.
Fabric overwhelms,in leaps and bounds.
Here, more is more.
But, is it better?One gets the sense that in this marketplace, fashion is sold by the bolt, and not necessarily by an artist's sleight of hand.
It is a carving of a different kind, one seemingly without restriction or boundary.
James says that "Fashion, after all, is magic and miracle.
"Indeed, but did this artist fulfill his artistic credo? On the other hand, what is gorgeous is the Met's opening night gala preparations.
Designed by architects Diller Scofidio and Renfro, the museum's entry is a beautiful extravaganza of flower and form.
Outfitted with thousands of orange roses adorning its "form" structure, the entry's centerpiece is a fashion forward delight.
This clever dressing is both attractive and magnanimous, one nod to James and another to the beautiful ladies attending the fete.
Do they walk in beauty?To be sure.
Over 75 of the couturier's masterpieces are on view, including hats, forms, and photographs documenting James' corpus.
Two separate exhibitions, one in the new Costume Institute and the other across the hall, comprise the overall sprawling exhibition.
James's work spans from the 1920's to his death in 1978.
Beginning his career in London, and then moving onto Paris, the designer arrives in New York in 1940.
Designing at a time when many a fashion icon flourishes, Charles James was in the right place at the right time - a perfect zeitgeist.
The designer "considered himself an artist," says the Met's director Thomas Campbell, "approaching fashion with a sculptor's eye and a scientist's logic.
To me, an artist approaches beauty with the understanding that a certain balance of form and elegance hangs in the lurch.
That there needs to be an underlying harmony between the form, the body upon which a dress fits, and the cloth itself -is the test of real fashion beauty.
Sartorial elegance comes packaged and is party to both the individual donning the dress and the costume itself.
It is, if you will, a partnership.
One of the exhibit's curators notes that "James was an artist who chose fabric and its relationship to the human body as his medium of expression.
" Granted James created in an age of opulence, granted that many of the exhibited dresses are ball gowns, and granted that the chosen creations, here, are among his most famous,the question of whether more fabric, more swirls and twists on the bias, more poufs and gatherings contributes to the greatness of a work of art is seminal.
James' fashions are glamorous.
It is an understatement to deny the fullness of his fashion sense.
Fabric overwhelms,in leaps and bounds.
Here, more is more.
But, is it better?One gets the sense that in this marketplace, fashion is sold by the bolt, and not necessarily by an artist's sleight of hand.
It is a carving of a different kind, one seemingly without restriction or boundary.
James says that "Fashion, after all, is magic and miracle.
"Indeed, but did this artist fulfill his artistic credo? On the other hand, what is gorgeous is the Met's opening night gala preparations.
Designed by architects Diller Scofidio and Renfro, the museum's entry is a beautiful extravaganza of flower and form.
Outfitted with thousands of orange roses adorning its "form" structure, the entry's centerpiece is a fashion forward delight.
This clever dressing is both attractive and magnanimous, one nod to James and another to the beautiful ladies attending the fete.
Do they walk in beauty?To be sure.
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