On our recent birthday celebration trip to New York my Mom, Sister and I found a day to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My Mom retired after 35 years of service as a volunteer Docent at the Spenser Museum of Art at KU, and is always up for a museum visit.
The main attraction for us was the Schiapareli/Prada exhibit. Oh the clothes, the shoes, the hats, the brown sweaters!
One focus of the exhibit highlighted items by the two designers that fell into three categories of chic. We’ll define chic as meaning stylish, as in a fashion element. I found the definitions of chic in the exhibit to be timely given the constant focus of the fashion media on uniforms for women.
The curators defined three types of styles: Hard, Naif, and Ugly.
The main attraction for us was the Schiapareli/Prada exhibit. Oh the clothes, the shoes, the hats, the brown sweaters!
One focus of the exhibit highlighted items by the two designers that fell into three categories of chic. We’ll define chic as meaning stylish, as in a fashion element. I found the definitions of chic in the exhibit to be timely given the constant focus of the fashion media on uniforms for women.
The curators highlighted on Schiaparelli’s café life designs, which focused on clothing from the waist up - what would be seen above a table. Prada’s designs focused on the waist down. Although the two women never met – Schiaparelli (1890-1973) worked from the late 1920s to the early 1950s and Prada who is still living took her place at the family fashion house in the 1980s- and worked in different eras their styles meshed amazingly. Check out an overview to see more. There is video that was shown in the exhibit. I'm not going to link to it here because it's 10 minutes.
The curators defined three types of styles: Hard, Naif, and Ugly.
Hard Chic - Downplays femininity.
Uniform dressing is by no means a new concept. Sometimes people even wear them to work. Notice how the detail on the shoulders of the jackets below spell out TWA.
I couldn't resist the cheerleader. When you combine a style like uniform that's supposed to be not-feminine, with feminine features like a short skirt it creates surprise for the viewer, and enhances the discordant feminine aspect.
Uniform dressing is by no means a new concept. Sometimes people even wear them to work. Notice how the detail on the shoulders of the jackets below spell out TWA.
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| It's not too hard to figure out which stewardess is my Aunt. |
I couldn't resist the cheerleader. When you combine a style like uniform that's supposed to be not-feminine, with feminine features like a short skirt it creates surprise for the viewer, and enhances the discordant feminine aspect.
I personally found the Ugly Chic items to be the most attractive. The example here shows toned down colors, prints and a lot of green, brown and orange. I like color, print and textiles/textures! On a side note, Prada shows a lot of brown. Several lovely dresses were worn with brown alpacha sweaters. It's cold in Northern Italy so that believable. Brown goes well with my coloring so I took note.
Naif Chic - Girlish features across all ages.
All things considered the designs shown in the exhibit aren't all that girly. Recent modern fashion has had a lot of girlish features. It seems that the lower down the totem pole you reach the rufflier things have gotten.
NaifChic by rose9482 featuring clutch handbags
My personal experience is that many of my mistakes fall into the Naif category. They appeal to me when I see them on other people, or looking pretty in a shop, but once in my closet they don't get worn very much.
Note: I've been foiled by Polyvore. Those sets take on lives of their own, thus the Naif Chic post. Sometimes when I start writing I get all wound up and revise to the high heavens. That's almost never good for the final product. So this one goes out. The photos of my own examples of the Chic will have to wait until I find my tripod!
Note: I've been foiled by Polyvore. Those sets take on lives of their own, thus the Naif Chic post. Sometimes when I start writing I get all wound up and revise to the high heavens. That's almost never good for the final product. So this one goes out. The photos of my own examples of the Chic will have to wait until I find my tripod!
