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anotheranon ([personal profile] anotheranon) wrote2005-03-20 06:22 pm
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weekend in review

Hit the 1940s fashion exhibit with D., [livejournal.com profile] geekchick and [livejournal.com profile] nminusone. For future reference: the Kennedy Center is much bigger and multileveled than it appears on the outside. Also note: symmetry isn't inherently beautiful and harmonious if it causes you to get lost!

Short version - we missed the lecture part of the tour (which turns out to have been mostly guided tour by curator; a little confusing for me as I associate "lecture" with something you sit down for), but we DID see the exhibit, which was, IMHO, impressive. I'd have been happy enough just to have seen Claire McCardell's revolutionary 1940s swimsuits, but the exhibit also included a Schiaparelli jacket of unusual and attractive construction and the uniforms of the WACs and WAVEs plus some discussion of wartime fabric rationing.

After the exhibit conversation and sandwiches ensued, reaching the conclusions that 1) "The Real World: Philosophers" would be a huge hit, and 2) there is a correlation between explosions and girls in bikinis, involving some law of physics that goes right over my head :P

Got back home and I am curiously tired, probably due in part to the fact that the air pressure/temperature has dropped and it's now storming intermittently.

The rest of the evening promises some reading and possibly more work on the corset - glove needles (hand sewing needle with flat razor tip for sewing through leather) is possibly the best thing I've found to go through multiple layers of PVC.

[identity profile] skill-grl.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
This sounds like an amazing exhibit. Was it in the top floor exhibit space?

[identity profile] anotheranon.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, the top floor. It runs until April 15 if you want to try and make it.

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Mmmmm ... Claire McCardell ... amazing woman!

[identity profile] anotheranon.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
Wonderfully talented! The reason I was so excited to see the swimsuits was that other swimwear of the period was heavily structured inside to create the ideal 1940s silhouette (supported bust, small waist) - great for looks, not so great for swimming. She made suits that actually moved and that could get wet!

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
Quite a radical designer for her time. :-) I first learned about her by a rather unusual route ... through a book on the history of paper dolls (a paper doll book of McCardell designs was issued in 1956).
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Re: whoa!!

[identity profile] anotheranon.livejournal.com 2005-03-21 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
It goes through April 15 - let me see if I can find the linky-dink again - http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=XFFAS (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=XFFAS).

WWII and the need for women in factories really did help pants become more acceptable for women, at least in some situations. I can't help thinking of Katharine Hepburn and her elegant pantsuits :)

If you can't make it down here for this exhibit, all of the garments are on loan from FIT so you might be able to see these next time you're in NYC.