Fashion Fantasies

On December 26th, my birthday, we went to the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. You can't take photos inside the museum, but we wandered into the entrance to the college itself and found an exhibit of fantasy clothing designed by students. There was no restriction on photography there so I snapped a number of photos of humanoid models in clothing that has never been worn on Earth. Some of it couldn't, like the pinata-style garb for a female centaur.

Inside the museum, we viewed the exhibit on "Seduction," a retrospective of erotic male and female garb from the 18th century to today. Jason especially liked a dark green velvet ball gown. It reminded me a bit of the gown Scarlett O'Hara fashioned out of velvet curtains, on her way to seduce Rhett into giving her the tax money (what a coincidence).

I found the Goth exhibit downstairs more interesting. I've always had a fascination for costumes, and these fashions were more like costumes than everyday wear. Black predominated, of course, and the connection to Victorian mourning attire was obvious. Many of the clothes were quite impractical, such as a jacket that came up over the head, and a gown that appeared to have elongated sequins. Upon closer examination, they turned out to be microscope slides, shining against the blood-red gown.

Behind a mirror, there were humanoid models wearing modern street Goth attire. Black leather jackets painted with skulls, and so on. This was more like outfits I'd seen in real life -- only far more artistic.

After this we travelled uptown to try and get into the Museum of Modern Art, but gave up the project when we saw that there were people lined up all around the block. MOMA is free on Friday nights, and this combined with the holiday season drew out a huge crowd. Instead, we headed down to the Village and ate out at the Washington Square Diner.