FIT for Free!

Chanel and coffins seem an unlikely combination, but on a recent rainy Saturday my friend and I saw both (for free!) at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (or FIT- http://www.fitnyc.edu/aspx/Content.aspx?menu=FutureGlobal:Museum.) There were two exhibits, "Arbiters of Style Women at the Forefront of Fashion" (until November 8, 2008) and the recently opened "Gothic Dark Glamour" (until February 21, 2009) borrowing from the museum's collection of 50,000 garments and 4,000 pairs of shoes.

The worlds of Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Diane von Furstenberg, and others were displayed in the Arbiters of Style exhibit, but the fashions of other lesser-known creators such as Ann and May Shogren, eighteenth-century designers who traveled from Portland, Oregon, to Paris and New York for designs and fabrics, were also presented. I particularly liked a red silk dress from 1715, designed by Ann a Maria Garthwaite, the only woman known to have worked in Spitalfield's, the London-based silk weaving center. I also enjoyed an 1840's evening dress covered in cherries, a gray net lace French evening dress from 1949 by Lucille Man, and a fabulous red and gold Rive Gauche dress by Yves St. Laurent. One of the more modern looks I coveted was a copper-colored Diane von Furstenberg dress from her fall 2008 collection.

After leaving the muted elegance of the women's fashion exhibit behind, we headed downstairs to enter the fashion underworld of the Gothic fashion exhibit. Out of the darkness skeletons leered at us from fabrics, while above us a moon glowed in between shadowy clouds. Coffins were used as accessories and one of the walls faded magically away to reveal mannequins. Mannequins were also placed between castle ruins or were trapped behind mesh cages, so the whole effect was rather that of a surreal dance club where no one moved. Most of it wasn't really my style, leather and studs isn't my thing, but it was interesting to look at. My favorite outfit was a dress shredded through with shades of purples, blues, and lavenders done by Gattinoni for the fall 1997 collection. I think my friend summed the Gothic exhibit up best when she said, "Some of it's beautiful, some of it's scary."

Source: Museum at FIT

Cheap Chick Info: Free!
Location Info: Seventh Avenue at 27th Street.
Subway Info: 1, 9, N, R to 28th Street or the C, E, F, V to 23rd Street.