Weekend Inspiration: That Lip

"Mouth, 7" by Tom Wesselman (1966) at MoMA

Guest Blogger: Lingerie + Art = Love

Last weekend, my coworker and friend Marli Marinelli asked if I wanted to come with her to a lingerie art exhibit. A lingerie art exhibit! How could I turn that down? Oh right, I had a wedding doubleheader that weekend and had to start my travel that Thursday of the exhibit. Luckily, Marli was thrilled to write a post for PLU. Enjoy!

Let’s just get my lingerie confession out of the way now: on a typical day, I reach for Gap Body. Plain cotton, no adornment, no wedgies, no frills. But for the bright and shiny moments of life, I crave lingerie. The kind that looks like art. And in its most elevated form, lingerie should make your body look like art.

And on the topic of lingerie and art, I went to an exhibition last week that captured how just a few wisps of artfully arranged silk, lace, and gossamer can transform the body. My friend and talented photographer Amber Rima collaborated with stylist Britta Uschkamp and actor/playwright Lauren LoGiudice to create an intimate portrait series inspired by Greta Garbo. The photographs explore the “dark and the light of stardom through the lens of Garbo’s story. In this ambiance of glamour, solitude and privacy, they explore how the icon felt in her most intimate settings.”

I loved how the photography looked at once old world and strikingly modern. Austere yet ornate. Rippling with sensuality and ripe with the unspoken. They looked like frames from a story. And what I loved was not just the presentation of lingerie but the presentation otf the portraits, hanging from clothes rails at Prohibit NYC, the wires teasingly decorated with black satin ribbons. It’s the smallest touches that carry the most weight—and isn’t that the very spirit of lingerie?

Greta Dreams at Prohibit NYC, 152 Allen Street, NYC

First and second photos courtesy of Lena Scherer, ©2012.

Everythings: CHANEL's The Little Black Jacket

I was away in Paris for two weeks in June, during which CHANEL's The Little Black Jacket exhibit came to NYC. Tragic irony. Luckily for me, my bestie Erica Paik went with our friend Jess Tice and took in the show. Erica texted me one photo from the exhibit she thought I would like and I immediately asked her to write a guest post on the exhibit, highlighting the portraits that featured lingerie and lingerie-inspired outfits. I wish I could've seen the exhibit—I flipped through the book and the photographs made me ooh and aah, so I can only imagine how I would've reacted at the actual exhibit (i.e. quietly losing my shit inside my head). Thank you Erica for this lovely write-up!

While Esther was away in Paris for business, my friend Jess and I managed to experience a little bit of Paris in NYC.  The Little Black Jacket has been making its way across the globe, and we were lucky to catch it on its last day in the city. I sent a few photos to Esther that I thought would peak her interest.

The space was dark except for the illuminated photographs/posters. 

I had a sneaking suspicion that Esther would love this image of Georgia May Jagger. The tough girl attitude, black kohl rimmed eyes, inner wear as her almost only outerwear, and those statement accessories—how cool is she? [Ed. note: UM, SO COOL. This is hands down one of my favorite portraits in the exhibit... well, at least in the book since I missed the exhibit.]

Poppy Delevigne manages too look like one of the Three Graces in her undergarments, robe, ballet flats and Chanel jacket. Why not?

Oh, Kirsten Dunst! From her leopard print bustier with high waisted skirt to the jacket casually draped on her shoulder, I thought this image was just perfect. I can see someone wearing an outfit like this on a late summer evening especially as we are currently going through a heat wave. 

I just love this portrait of Charlotte Gainsbourg and her pregnant belly smiling towards the portrait of her mother, Jane Birkin. It looks as the two of them of sharing a special moment in the middle of the entire exhibition. [Ed. note: Okay, fine. I know there's no lingerie here, but c'mon! It's such a cute curatorial choice!]

I’m so glad that Esther is back and hope you enjoyed this PLU Everythings moment courtesy of The Little Black Jacket and random Thursday art nights.

xo

P.S. Call your mama and share a laugh today.

All photos © 2012 Erica Paik

Everythings — Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations

I finally went to the Met last Friday to check out the famed Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations exhibit. It's a Pradaphile's dream and the juxtaposition of Prada's work with Schiaparelli's sends chills down your spine. But what I found more interesting than the fashion itself was the attitudes of both women towards fashion. They both aim(ed) to subvert traditional concepts of fashion and luxury, and both explored the link (if any) between art and fashion. Their work was/is a living, evolving experiment and testing of society's standards and it was/is the vehicle of how they examine life. 

A few of Prada's quotes that really got my brain spinning:

"People say that my designs are quirky, but they're not quirky. I deliberately introduce a steady look into high fashion. So what people sometimes interpret as quirky is my attempt to subvert the concept of luxury by introducing elements that are considered ordinary or commonplace."

"If I have done anything, it is to make ugly appealing. In fact, most of my work is concerned with destroying—or at least deconstructing—conventional ideas of beauty, of the generic appeal of the beautiful, glamorous, bourgeois woman. Fashion fosters clichés of beauty, but I want to tear them apart."

"Fashion is art, fashion is not art—at the end, who cares?"

And a few of the photos I managed to sneak in (shh, don't tell anyone) of the pieces that I found particularly mesmerizing.

Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. Metropolitan Museum of Art, through August 19, 2102.