weekend in review

[anotheranon]

Hit the 1940s fashion exhibit with D., geekchick and 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.

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm ... Claire McCardell ... amazing woman!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

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!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

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).