Louboutin- Fetish and a New Website

David Lynch and Christian Louboutin took their Fetish shoe and photography exhibit to the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, and were both present for the recent opening party. The exhibit first took place in 2007 at the Galerie du Passage in Paris. We exhibited one of the fetish shoes created for the exhibit, a black ballet shoe with a heel so high that the toe of the shoe rests on the ground, in the Louboutin exhibit at FIT in March of 2008 (co-curated by yours truly and the wonderful Julie Ann Orsini). I find it interesting that the women in the Style.com slideshow of the Moscow opening are wearing relatively tame Louboutins- I would think you'd go all out for the Fetish party instead of wearing the Decolleté or Simple Pump, which are pretty basic as far as Loub shoes go.

Take a look at Louboutin's relatively new website. It's sort of Alice in Wonderland meets Baz Luhrmann- very quirky. Very him. There is plenty of great information on Louboutin himself in the "Louboutin World" section, but my favorite part is, of course, the collection. The "total madness" page has the shoes in little glass cases with butterflies, which is very much in accordance with his approach to the shoes; he has said that he likes to display them like little lovebirds in a pair.

As for the shoes themselves, my favorites are:
Under High Heels, the Escatin in cherry patent with gold trim- very fun, flattering, creative shape
Under Extremely High, the Jefferson Plato in Navy lizard- it's a peep-toe slingback boat shoe in lizard! I like the navy because the color scheme is preppy and traditional but there's so much funk to the whole look, and the navy and white look great with the red soles.
Under Flats, the Adona Lim Flat in any of the colors, especially the Python. I'm not usually crazy for his flats since he's so known for the red sole, which you can see better in the heels, but these are very attractive, eye-catching and wearable.
Under Total Madness, I love the Marie Antoinette shoe, which even has an eighteenth-century hairstyle complete with sailboat on the ankle strap!
Finally, under Total Madness, there is a fetish shoe from the David Lynch exhibit that is for sale- a burgundy patent pump with a 14cm heel. Not the craziest of the fetish shoes but probably the only one that is marketable.

What do you think? Which shoes are your favorites? Do you enjoy the new website?

Photo for Life Magazine by Nina Leen, April 1948. Louboutin would love these shoes, since he knows all about using toe cleavage to be provocative.

Muriel King, Dumbarton House, and Marjorie Merriweather Post

Today's your last day to go see the Muriel King exhibit in NYC! If you can't make it (like me, unfortunately), explore the online exhibit.

Also, there are some great exhibits going on in the DC area that I will be trying to get to soon and blog about! The first is at Dumbarton House in Georgetown and it is called "Preparing for the Ball: Costume of the Early Nation." The exhibition features the collection of Mary Doering and is co-curated by Doering and Scott Scholtz. It runs until July 4, and there are two exciting special events that accompany it: First, curator's tours at 6 and 7 on April 28th ($5 or free for students with IDs- kudos to them for offering a student discount!). Second, there is a Curator's Choice Evening Lecture on Thursday, April 23 at 7:30 for $10 ($5 for students with ID) featuring Linda Eaton, Curator of Textiles for Winterthur Museum and Gardens. I plan on attending both, so if you're going, send me a comment and we can say hi!

The second exhibit is at Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens (tagline: Where Fabulous Lives- I love it!) in NW Washington. It is called "An Invitation to the Ball: Marjorie Post's Fancy Dress Costumes of the 1920s" and will be up until July 12 (suggested donation $12, full-time college students $7). There is also a lecture by Caroline Weber, author of Queen of Fashion, on "the social aspects of costuming, especially those employed by Mrs. Post. Ms. Weber will speak about the social history of 1920s costumes and the ways that fashion has been used as a tool to assert legitimacy and power over time." The lecture is $15 for the public and $7 for students. Sounds great! Again, I plan on attending.
Finally, keep your eyes open for what Michelle Obama is wearing in Britain. I wasn't nuts about her Isabel Toledo outfit worn to see the queen- a little boring- but I loved her chartreuse Jason Wu coat and her J.Crew outfit with the celery-green skirt. I think celery is going to be a big color this summer.

Image of dancing dress, Europe, 1909, from Wikimedia Commons.

Muriel King: Artist of Fashion Exhibit

Just a quick post to say that the Muriel King: Artist of Fashion Graduate exhibit at the Museum at FIT opens tonight, put together by the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice second-year master's students. I'm sure it will be excellent and I can't wait to see what kind of great press it will get. If you are in or around New York, please go see it! I fully intend to write a lengthy post about the exhibit, hopefully talking to the curators etc. since I can't make it up to NY. It will be up until April 4th at the Museum at FIT, located at 27th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. The Museum is free and open to the public Tue-Fri 12-8, Sat 10-5. The permanent history gallery features its Seduction exhibit right now as well, which is I'm sure worth seeing.
Have you been? Tell me about it!

FIT's Online Collection

The Museum at FIT now has an "online collection" feature, where you can search and zoom images of some of their garments and textiles. As of now, the collection is relatively small, and mostly consists of images that have been on display in their exhibitions over the past few years. Irving Solero's photographs are stunning, as always. While you can't save the images, they are great sources for research and inspiration. A few of my favorites: this incredible Schiaparelli evening dress, these stunning Givenchy boots by Alexander McQueen, and this 1880s afternoon dress (I love the marabou. So elegant!)

Which are your favorites? Where do you like to find fashion images?