Last Call: American High Style

This Sunday, August 1, 2010, is the final day to view the exhibit American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection at Brooklyn Museum.

The dress above is Charles Frederick Worth, circa 1875.

Louis Vuitton Lust

In the July 2010 issue of W there is a picture of a new Louis Vuitton bag that has me nearly drooling, with its two tones of gray, the flap made of ostrich, the rest of the bag in shimmering silver monogram leather, the single pink handle, the brass hardware. Forget lust, I am dying of love! If there are a few sure things in this world for me, one is I adore the combination of pink and gray, and the second is I cannot resist the Louis Vuitton monogram.

Since there was no information available on the bag in W or on the Louis Vuitton website, I called Louis Vuitton to learn more. I found out it's called the Monogram Comedie Carousel, it is 10 inches long and 6.7 inches high, it will be available in August, and it retails for $6,200.

A chance to visit with this beauty in person might be irresistible for me so don't be surprised if you see this bag again soon, with me next to it instead of a model.

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

I went to the Costume Institute's exhibit at the Met called American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, on view until August 15, 2010. Unfortunately, the museum will not allow patrons to take photographs because of "copyright issues," as one guard told me, so I cannot share with you how beautiful the exhibit is as a whole, not only with their gowns but with the wonderful murals that help fix the clothes in their proper era and the crazy-gorgeous wigs on the mannequins created by Julian D'ys, whose work is often featured in Vogue. The exhibit is broken down by American female archetypes, rather than by designer and period, as at the Brooklyn Museum show, and the clothes largely culled from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The archetypes are the Heiress, the Gibson Girl, the Bohemian, the Patriot & the Suffragist, the Flapper, and the Screen Siren.

My favorite room belonged to the Flapper, showing shimmering dresses from the 1920's in shades of ivory and champagne and coral and pink. The dress above, from 1925, French, but not attributed to a particular designer or house, was one of the thirteen dresses on display in the room.

The other dress shown here is an 1898 Jean-Philippe Worth gown featured in the Heiress room.

If you go to the Met's website and click on the American Woman page, you will find a short video tour of the exhibit.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York NY 10028
212-570-3951
www.metmuseum.org

Pretty Ballerinas

Walking in Manhattan yesterday I came across this adorable store at the corner of 74th Street and Lexington Avenue. I was immediately drawn to the window filled with ballet-dancer pink boxes. I thought it might be a dancers' shoe store but discovered it's even better than that--it's called Pretty Ballerinas and it's a sweet shop that sells only ballet flats in every imaginable material and color. I asked the shop girl if this was their only location and she said for New York yes, but they also have stores in Europe.

Color me pale pink and enchanted.

Pretty Ballerinas
1034 1/2 Lexington Avenue
New York NY 10021
212-249-7844
www.prettyballerinas.us