The Dress

Kate's bridal gown by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. Photo from www.extravaganzi.com.

I wasn't so sure about Kate's dress from the little I saw of it as she got into the car for the drive to Westminster Abbey. After about five minutes of seeing it in full, however, I loved it.

I got the above picture from Extravaganzi.com, as well as the following description:

"The dress is made of French Chantilly lace and English Cluny lace throughout the bodice, skirt and underskirt. The dress, made of ivory and white satin gazar, was designed to emulate an opening flower. The train measures 2.7 meters. The lace on the bride's dress details a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock, and was handmade by the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. Her handmade shoes, also by McQueen, were composed of ivory duchesse satin and lace. Workers washed their hands every 30 minutes to make sure the lace and threads remained pristine. Needles were swapped every three hours to keep them sharp."

I loved the double kiss! Photo by Dylan Martinez for Reuters.

You can read even more about the bridal party clothes, including those worn by the bridesmaids and pages, here, from the Official Royal Wedding site.

Now that the world knows the designer of the dress was, as rumored, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, my new pet theory is that the McQueen retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opens on May 4 to the public, will be even more packed this summer than I was already expecting it to be. Sarah Burton, who worked closely with Alexander McQueen for 14 years, took over designing for the label after McQueen's suicide in February of last year.

What did you think of Kate's dress?

Wrapped Around Your Finger

On my wedding day, February 1998. Was I ever so young?

In honor of William and Kate’s wedding on Friday (which I do believe I will get up early for), I’d like to share a wedding day snapshot of myself, as well as some wedding band facts I learned when researching rings for an article I wrote a few years ago for the Park Slope Reader, a neighborhood magazine. The article was titled “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and focused on tips by Brooklyn jewelry designers on getting the wedding band that’s right for you. The facts presented here were a sidebar called “Wedding Rings in History.”

I’ve read that William has elected not to wear a wedding band. It’s not like he needs it to identify himself as married; after tomorrow he is going to be the most famous husband in the world for awhile.

My husband and I have simple gold bands purchased from a shop in the Diamond District in Manhattan—always an experience, shopping there. You can get a good deal but it’s not nearly as romantic as shopping at Tiffany.


A few wedding ring facts:

-The Egyptians believed the circle, with no beginning or end, signified eternity and they twisted reeds and hemp into the first wedding rings. They wore them on the third finger of the left hand, in the belief that the vein there traveled straight to the heart. This legend was adopted by both the Greeks and the Romans and the vein in this finger became known as “vena amoris,” the “vein of love.”

-Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, became the first woman to receive a diamond engagement ring. Knowing there were many suitors for her hand, Archduke Maximilian of Austria acted on the advice of his counselors and presented her with the diamond ring they believed would impress her. It worked, Mary and Maximilian wed on August 18, 1477. By the 1600s, diamond engagement rings were in vogue all over Europe.

-In early America, Puritans felt adornment such as jewelry was immoral, so men gave their brides thimbles as tokens of love. Some women cut off the top part of the thimble, creating a makeshift wedding ring.

-Men’s wedding rings became popular in World War II. With the soldiers’ long deployments overseas, bands became both symbols of their marriages and a reminder of the wives waiting for them back home.

Do you wear a wedding band? If so, what kind?

Heart of Glass

Toots Zynsky (American, b. 1951). Incantatrice (Sorceress). United States, Providence, Rhode Island, 2007. Fused and thermo-formed glass threads.

I don't know about you, but I can't resist somebody named Toots Zynsky, and that's before I learn that she is an amazing American glass artist who studied in the 1970s with the renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Her real first name is Mary Ann, but I love that she goes by Toots. She has a mini-exhibit within the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, called Masters of Studio Glass: Toots Zynsky, which I saw last week.

Pajaritos en la cabeza (Little birds in the head) and Cabellos de angel (Angel hair). The Netherlands, Amsterdam, 1988. Fused and thermo-formed glass threads.

These particular pieces are made of fused and thermo-formed glass threads. They are bold and startling when first encountered, awe-inspiring when you get closer and see the individual glass threads.

Look at those colors!

Look at those glass threads!

I found this quote from Ms. Zynsky interesting, and applicable to more than just glass sculptures:

"Lots of things happen while blowing glass," Zynsky explains. "Sometimes a shape goes completely wrong because I lose my hold on it. This led me to realize that I could do other things to form glass in the kiln, turn it upside down, squeeze it, pull it, and yank it. If I had my way, I'd like to push every piece I make until it breaks, because then I've learned everything about it that I can."

Masters of Studio Glass: Toots Zynsky is on view until January 29, 2012.

www.cmog.org

This One's for My Peeps

Happy Easter Everyone!

Feathery, Beaded & Sequined Chanel

These are the windows at the Chanel boutique on 57th Street in Manhattan. I was more drawn to the accessories than the dresses.

I don't know about the feathered dress...

But I'll take the necklace.

Yes please to the pale pink bag, although I wouldn't throw the gold one out of my closet either. Studio 54, anyone?

More feathers, this time on the bag.

Was it necessary to have the mannequin lying down wearing this gorgeous dress?

I'd skip the fingerless gloves but the cuffs are keepers.

What do you think?

Set in Style Extended

Foliage necklace. Paris, France, 1959. Platinum, gold, rubies, diamonds.

Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has been extended until July 4, 2011. More than 45,000 visitors have seen the show since its opening on February 18 and because this number is shattering the original expectations, the museum is holding the show over for an extra month.

Nécessaire. Paris, France, 1928. Gold, blue, black, and white enamel, sculpted lapis lazuli, rose-cut and baguette-cut diamonds. I wished this lived on top of my dresser so I could see it every day.

My friend Sarah at Cloud of Secrets asked a great question during my last post on the Van Cleef & Arpels show, Endless Emeralds, about fine jewelry being made during the Great Depression. I found this in the book that accompanies the exhibit, written by Sarah D. Coffin:

“While the 1930's witnessed economic depression on a global scale, a market for luxury jewelry remained, albeit on a limited scale, demanding new designs and new materials to excite consumers.”

Later, there is also this:

“World events have been an ongoing source of creativity for VC&A. The challenge of maintaining a luxury business through two World Wars, which led to severe limitations on prized resources such as platinum and gold, led to creative uses of non-precious materials such as wood, glass, leather, enamel, and Styphor, VC&A's name for an alloy that includes aluminum used especially for Minaudières. Many of the creative solutions to difficult times have remained or been revived in new designs over the years, while new materials have been added to the repertoire.”

I gathered from the book that there is always somebody, somewhere, rich enough to buy a piece of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry, or, one step further, to commission the firm to make something truly unique and unforgettable.

www.cooperhewitt.org

On Rachel Zoe and Baby Boys

Rodger, Rachel, and their new son Skyler. Photo from Rachelzoe.com.

I just learned that celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and her husband Rodger Berman welcomed their son Skyler Morrison Berman on March 24. I don’t know how I missed this, although I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t been watching TV at all, nor reading as many blogs or online news sites as I usually do. Congratulations Rachel & Rodger!

I’ve enjoyed all three seasons of The Rachel Zoe Project, not just for the clothes and jewelry but for a theme I wasn’t even expecting—the pressure to have a baby before it’s too late.

Rachel’s husband, parents, and sister were all giving her the hard sell on having a baby during Season 3. A telling moment regarding Rachel’s feelings on motherhood was when her sister explained that if Rachel became a mother, she would have to let fashion take a backseat in order to do things like have playdates with children of her mommy friends. Rachel actually recoiled and I understood her dismay. It seems there is everything to put you off having children—the crying (yours and the baby’s), the poo diapers, the wrecked sleep—and that’s just the stuff you know about ahead of time. I’m sure Rachel was thinking, I have to give up Paris Fashion Week for a playdate? What?

Rodger talked about his frustration in wanting Rachel to slow down and start a family with him. As much as I sympathized, I also feel it’s so easy for a man to say that, but at the end of the day it’s the woman who has to go through pregnancy, labor and delivery. It’s the woman who ends up with sore boobs bigger than her head that are leaking milk all over the place, and it’s the woman baby wants 24/7 after he comes into the world. It’s hard to have a business and a child unless you have a ton of help, and even then, something’s got to give. And yet I also understood Rodger’s point of view that Rachel was 38, and at the fast pace they were living, 20 years could go by, your time to have kids is over, and you may end up feeling like you missed out on something that could’ve been wonderful.

So you just have to go for it, which Rachel and Rodger did. Good for them.

Alternating with her ambivalence on motherhood was Rachel’s desire to give birth wearing Chanel, which made me laugh. I wanted to tell her, Don’t do it! Childbirth is such a messy business, you’ll end up ruining a perfectly beautiful dress! Do what I did and wear a nice pair of earrings. You’ll suddenly have an heirloom worth passing along to your child someday, and you don’t have to worry about wrecking your own clothes. That’s what hospital gowns are for.

My Mikimoto pearl stud earrings I wore when giving birth to each of my children and when I ran both of my marathons.

I hope Rachel’s new baby compels her and Rodger to step away from the crazy world of fashion for now and just revel in their little family and the kinds of things holding your new son in your arms can give you that nothing else in the world can—wonder, awe, gratitude. Rachel twittered that her baby boy is everything. I remember that feeling too when I looked at my son—so tiny, so precious, so vulnerable and sweet.

My son, two weeks old, November 2002.

When my now 8-year old son is rolling his eyes at me or cracking himself up reading cuss words written on the subway or I have to practically sit on him to get him to do his homework, I try to look at a picture of him as an infant. Any of them will do, but this one is particularly sweet. It helps to center me as a parent and I fall in love with him all over again. At least long enough to get through another day.

Endless Emeralds

Necklace. Paris, France, ca. 1938. Emeralds, diamonds, platinum.

From the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s exhibit Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels. There is so much bling on display that during the press preview no one except me paid any attention to this stunning 1938 emerald and diamond necklace. I had it all to myself.

From the exhibit book by Sarah D. Coffin:

“Women enjoyed more freedoms than ever in 1920s Paris, and VC&A responded with new object and jewelry designs that showed an innovative move toward larger and heavier pieces that continued into the 1930s.”

I thought this was a wonderful way to showcase the back of the necklace, by installing a tiny mirror to allow the viewer to see the clasp. The Exhibition Object Guide says this necklace can be worn “either way up since the diamond motifs are different.”

Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels is on display at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through June 5, 2011.