Hubert de Givenchy, 91

Hubert de Givenchy Dies at 91; Fashion Pillar of Romantic Elegance
by Eric Wilson, The New York Times, March 12, 2018

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Azzedine Alaïa, 82

Azzedine Alaïa, Fashion’s Most Independent Designer, Is Dead at 82
by Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, November 18, 2017

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Virginia Thoren, 97

Virginia Thoren, Artful Fashion Photographer, Dies at 97
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, November 2, 2017

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James Galanos, 92

James Galanos, Fashion Designer for the Elite, Dies at 92
by Guy Trebay, The New York Times, October 31, 2016

Sonia Rykiel, 86

Sonia Rykiel, Fashion Designer for the ‘Fragile, but Strong,’ Dies at 86
by Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times, August 25, 2016

Seeking a friend for the end of the world: Monstah Black's HOT!

Clockwise from bottom left:
Shiloh Hodges, Monstah Black, Benedict Nguyen,
Alicia Dellimore and Joey Cuellar (center)
(photo: Peter Yesley)

The world is coming to an end!

(No kidding!)

So, what do you do?

Well, if you're Monstah Black, you grab your pals, slap on wigs and stilettos, shake your cocktails and throw a fabulous dance party. Hyperbolic! (the last spectacle)--running Fridays and Saturdays through July 23 for Dixon Place's 25th Anniversary HOT! Festival--takes place by the light of a mushroom cloud and suggests nothing more complicated than what a lot of us have been saying lately in the wake of one bad, unacceptable piece of news after another.

Wherever you go, there you are.

You bring to each crisis precisely who and what you are and do what you were sent to Earth (from, you know, wherever Sun Ra hailed from) to do. So, let's just get the funk on with it!

When we first meet Black and company, they most bring to mind the Wicked Witch of the West--after she's been slain by a flying house, that is. Dressing room chairs and clothing racks have already toppled, pinning them against the floor. Glittery pools of blood-like fabric spread away from their poor heads.

It's August 11, 2033, and only Tucker (Joey Cuellar) appears to have survived the fashion apocalypse, perched on a bed, curly white wig dangling from fingertips. But, like creatures arising from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" ("Midnight hour is close at hand...."), the others soon spring to life, as preoccupied as ever with their usual pursuits.

Johnnie "Cruise" Mercer's character, for instance, can't get enough of his phallic selfie stick. Really, really, really can't get enough. Others obsess over their mirrored reflections, and Black--addressing us from a balcony--frets about how to fit a huge shoe collection into one suitcase.

What's important is important. "I'm going to make sure I look good if the world is coming to an end," one dancer declares. And Black--who designed the amazing costumes--certainly made sure everyone looks smashing, not only in these clubbing outfits but also the show's brisk, cartoonish movement stylings.

A lot of disciplined teamwork went into this production, you can tell, and the creative, performance and production team is sizable and complex--even with multi-talented Black appearing numerous times in the credits. The end result is far more amusement and glamour than you'd expect from catastrophe. But, then again, that's why we have queer artists.

Hyperbolic! (the last spectacle) continues Fridays and Saturdays, July 9, 15, 16, 22 and 23 at 7:30pm.  For information and tickets, click here.

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Ingrid Sischy, 63

Ingrid Sischy, Doyenne of Art and Fashion, Dies at 63
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, July 24, 2015

Oscar de la Renta, 82

Oscar de la Renta, Who Clothed Stars and Became One, Dies at 82
by Cathy Horyn and Enid Nemy, The New York Times, October 20, 2014

Trajal Harrell: Serving looks at The Kitchen

Dancer Trajal Harrell and his audience,
prepare for Monday night performance at The Kitchen.
(all photos: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Trajal Harrell is, by now, legendary for his "looks"--specifically, the array of interconnected dance projects, created since 2008, that wear the title Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church. In each of these pieces, Harrell plays with the fantasy of crossing two influential performance movements that arose in New York in the 1960s--a neutral minimalism favored by "downtown" dance artists, questioning what dance is, and Harlem's competitive and fabulous ball culture. Harrell's works, like articles of clothing, come in a variety of sizes--(XS), (S), (jr.), and so on, leading up to what he says will be a publication (XL). On Monday night, Harrell performed his solo, (S), at The Kitchen as part of FIAF's 2014 Crossing the Line Festival.

In the stripped-down, democratic Judson aesthetic, external appearance was nothing; in the world of the balls, it was everything, all about displaying the look of something you're not and, in most cases, will never be. That surface look transcends its illusion and elusiveness, cleverly employing yet moving beyond costume and even physicality to something trickier to glimpse, the spirit of the performer. That spirit becomes more clearly visible the longer we watch Harrell perform (S).

For (S), Harrell spends an hour on and around his catwalk, shifting through twenty personae of apparel and movement, starting from "West Coast Preppy School Boy" (in yellow slicker and white flipflops) and nerdy "East Coast Preppy School Boy" (complete with Obama backpack). In a Judsonian touch, the frequent costume changes take place right in front of us at a stand of ordinary folding chairs draped in pants, jackets and other gear, shoes and boots stored beneath. Harrell dons each "look" with zero fuss and with utmost transparency, hurriedly discarding one outfit for the next. Harrell's strides back and forth and around the rim of watchers, though inspired by the atmosphere and dramatics of a high fashion runway, are based in matter-of-fact human walking.

In the early phases at least, he takes on a modest, restrained demeanor that looks like the imaginary Harlemite showing up for postmodern dance class: "I'm here, but I'm not here." But there's way too much drama, way too much Josephine Baker, Graham, Basquiat, Meryl Streep in this guy to be sealed up in pure Judson, and what Harrell allows to shimmer through and seep out of any and all formal containers can be weirdly beautiful.

More "looks" coming up: (M)imosa, tonight at 8pm; (jr) Antigone Jr. and, at 9:30pm (Plus) Antigone Jr. ++ on Wednesday; (L) Antigone Sr. on Friday; and (M2M) Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem on Saturday. Clicking here will get you complete schedule, casting and ticket information.

The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan
(map)

For more information on FIAF's 2014 Crossing the Line Festival, running through October 20, click here.

Anne Hollander, 83

Anne Hollander, Scholar of Style, Dies at 83
by William Yardley, The New York Times, July 8, 2014

I love you Raja Feather Kelly

Raja Feather Kelly
has been doing some more thinking
about Andy "Drella" Warhol.
(photos by Andy Toad)

The name of this winning and humorous ensemble piece from dance artist Raja Feather Kelly might be The Feath3r Theory Presents: Andy Warhol's DRELLA (I Love You Faye Driscoll), as it appears in promotional materials, or The Feath3r Theory Presents: Andy Warhol's DRELLA (I Love You Faye Driscoll) Black by Popular Demand, as it appears in the black-on-pink program notes. Either way, you get the picture: a mashup of race, gender, the cult of personality, runway models in white face, drag and house culture, karaoke, mad juggling of archetypes and stereotypes and ebullient ballet steps performed in dirty ankle socks. Let's call this craftily messy beauty Drella for short--that name itself a shortening of Dracula and Cinderella and an invocation of Warhol.



For a few additional clues, I snipped this passage from the artist's statement on the beloved Faye Driscoll's Web site:

I am obsessed with the basic problem of being "somebody" in a world of other "somebodies," and in my work I attempt to pull apart this daily performance of self. I do this by enacting it in excess, blowing it up to the extreme in order to reveal its edges and create more space, more possibility for who we can be.

Likewise, Raja Feather Kelly is about creating more space and, from the looks of things, he knows exactly what to do with it.

Last call to see The Feath3r Theory in Drella at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn is tonight, 7:30pm. The show runs 70 minutes, and there's not a dull minute among them.

Seating is very limited. Check here for possibilities or, if you can't get in, do as some neighbors did last night: Catch it all through the center's storefront window!

Drella afterparty tonight at 9pm (free and open to the public). Information here.

The Invisible Dog
51 Bergen Street (between Smith and Court Streets), Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Deborah Turbeville, 81

Deborah Turbeville, Fashion Photographer, Dies at 81

by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, October 25, 2013

Steppin' out with Rick Owens in Paris

Rick Owens Paris Fashion Week Show Took Runway Diversity To A Whole New Level

by The Huffington Post, September 26, 2013

Seeing Valda Setterfield

Valda
by Tobi Tobias, Seeing Things, ArtsJournal.com, October 24, 2012

Falcon women and the falconer McQueen

Recommended
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Now, it's a sure bet that the Metropolitan Museum of Art does not need my endorsement of its blockbuster exhibition of Alexander McQueen's art. If you've already gone and spent too long trying to see past clumps of people who have stopped dead cold in front of one or another of the late fashion designer's creations, you probably would laugh at the idea of my encouraging more people to get in there by July 31. But there it is. I'm encouraging.

In fact, I'm so into encouraging that when I left the exhibit this morning, I could barely restrain myself from running up to people on the lines stretching down the Met's corridors to tell them that, yes, it's worth the wait, worth any sacrifice you might make, and even worth that little snarl you might have to emit to get a few folks to move their bodies away from a certain plaque so that you can, for god's sake, finally read it.

Just go. Be snarly, if you need to be. And that snarl might even work quite well if you're a woman. McQueen wanted women to be powerfully scary. He would approve.

Photographs and illustrations and videos (see here and here) won't do the job. You must stand in the presence. You must face these clothes-as-icons and observe the lush materials, the searing severity, the impeccable details, the daring theatricality, the overarching boldness of conception and execution. And the Met has set it all up with accompaniment that makes the whole work like an elaborate musical jewel box--a rather frightening musical jewel box but, nonetheless, an exceptionally thrilling one.

It's profoundly poignant that this genius is gone--and by his own hand. A troubled and brief life, but what an accomplished one!

Note: If you are a Met member, you don't have to stand on line. Show your card at the exhibit entrance, and sally forth. However, you'll most likely find that your sallying will not take you very far before you hit a wall of people. That's what happened to me, even though I arrived, card in hand, first thing in the morning on a weekday!

Don't fret. Eventually, the clump of your fellow gawkers will loosen up as you press further into the exhibit.

Enjoy!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Avenue at 82nd Street, Manhattan
(directions, admission and other visitor information)

The Met: up on the roof and elsewhere

All photos (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Most shots were taken at Doug + Mike Starn's Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop installation in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art. On view through October 31, weather permitting. Read about this exhibit here and here.

Also of interest this summer at the Met:

Picasso's exhilarating linoleum cuts, which finally made me skid to a halt, heart aflutter, as I tried to race through most of Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm going back and taking a much longer look at everything but, in particular, those exciting prints. Through August 15.

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity. My guilty pleasure, only because I discovered that I love that drapey, delicately glittery, Isadora Duncan-ish Bohemian look (1900s) and could barely pull myself away from that particular room in the exhibit. Just call me a femme-inist!

Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950-1980. Grit and wit. Levinstein's spontaneity inspires me:

In my photographs, I want to look at life--at the commonplace things as if I just turned a corner and ran into them for the first time. (Leon Levinstein, 1954)

Through October 17.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

McQueen: some insights on troubled genius

McQueen's Outer Child
by Guy Trebay, The New York Times, February 12, 2010

The significance of Naomi Sims

I appreciate this writer's perspective on the accomplishments of Naomi Sims.

Former model Naomi Sims dies of cancer at the age of 61
by Robin Givhan, The Root, August 5, 2009

Naomi Sims, 61

Naomi Sims, Model Pioneer, Dies at 61
by Eric Wilson, The New York Times, August 3, 2009

Saretta talk on Ancient Egyptian fashion

On Wednesday, December 26, noted Middle Eastern dancer Phyllis Saretta will present Fashion in Ancient Egypt: Clothing, Cosmetics, Coiffures, a gallery talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The talk will examine ancient Egyptian fashion and its transitions--from the severe to the frivolous--through shirts, sandals, mirrors, kohl tubes, razors, jewelry, wigs and hair ornaments.

Meet at:

Gallery Talk Stanchion
Great Hall, MMA
Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street

This event is free with museum admission. Click here for admission prices, directions and other visitor information.