The Shophound

ART & COMMERCE: Uniqlo Meets Warhol With A Free Trip To The MoMA + Lulu Guinness & More UU Uniqlo Undercover

It struck The Shophound this week that it has been weeks, weeks since our last visit to Uniqlo, that seemed impossible, so yesterday, we found ourselves at the 34th Street where we found:

A new delivery from the chain's latest ongoing collaboration, UU Uniqlo Undercover by Jun Takahashi. This round brings more Summer-y shorts, striped tees along with loose, printed dresses for women and camp shirts and carpenter's shorts with cunning hidden pockets for men. We would suggest the Fifth Avenue store for the best selection if you are a UU fan, and, once again, no fatties. Sizes still top out at a pretty skimpily cut Large.

Since this year's Summertime seems to feel free to barge its way through the Spring months (with no complaints from us), it's good that Uniqlo's popular UT t-shirt line has arrived in force. They are still $19.90, so you can't go too far wrong, although the women's selections have gotten heavy on the cutesy side with an excess of designs from Hello Kitty and Barbie. Though the kawaii overload could give anyone a toothache, shoppers looking for something more grown-up will be happy top find a new collaboration with designer Lulu Guinness. Sadly, it only t-shirts, not accessories, but there are 12 styles printed with the designer's distinctive, hand drawn designs.

Over on the men's side, the chain's latest dead-artist collab (after several seasons of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat) is none other than the Godfather of Pop Art himself, Andy Warhol offering clever silk screened tees featuring his most famous images (pictured above). You'll find the Campbell's Soup can and Brillo box as well as a few more obscure images. There are even a couple of the artist's earlier pre-Pop fashion illustrations on women's tops. The Warhol group coordinates well with a group designed in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art, and this month, Uniqlo will be giving away one free admission to the museum with the purchase of any two UT products (a $25 value). 4,000 tickets will be distributed through all three Uniqlo stores until supplies last, so go get little culture with your t-shirt.

UNIQLO (Official Site)

MCQUEEN REDUX: Right Now It Is Practically Impossible To Get Inside The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

The Costume Institute exhibition "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" is now the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most popular costume show ever, and headed to its all time top ten before it closes after this weekend. It'll be right up there with Van Gogh and King Tut. Yesterday, we recounted our experience getting into the show early on a Sunday morning, and our friends at RACKED made a sojourn uptown to see how things were going. As you can see from their photos above and below, the lines just to get into the museum are INSANE. They estimate that the two lines on either side of the museum's main entrance are the equivalent of six to eight blocks long and, as they put it, "each packed three or four or five sweating jerks deep".

This, of course, is just to enter the building itself. Racked's correspondents obviously couldn't get inside to see how long the other line to get into the exhibition itself was, but we can safely assume that it's long, really, really long.

So, that long lunch you were planning to hop over to the museum and catch the show before it closed? Consider it cancelled.

Going to Savage Beauty This Week? Good Luck With That. (RACKED)
Previously:
Crowd Control: A Word About The Crowds At The Alexander McQueen Exhibition

CROWD CONTROL: A Word About The Crowds At The Alexander McQueen Exhibition

Yesterday, The Shophound finally made it to the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We're not going to go on and on about it other than to say it is one of the best fashion exhibitions in recent memory, and worth seeing even if you aren't all that into clothes. It will close after this weekend, so this is your last chance to see it.

One would have thought we would have been first in line when it opened so many months ago, but we have a strong aversion to crowds and waiting in line, so we were trying to find a time to go to the museum when we could avoid those things. Eventually we realized that the show had become so popular that no such time existed, and when we stopped by a few times at what we thought would be odd hours, we were informed of two hours or more in wait times. Finally, we decided to go at the opening hour on Sunday morning, and though we didn't breeze through, here's some tips for those of you who will want to catch the exhibition in its last week.

GO EARLY, but not too early. We arrive at the museum at 9:30 when it opens its doors, a bit later than we had planned. To our growing horror, there was a line out the front door, down the steps, all the way to 84th Street. We were almost about to turn and go when when museum guards had formed a second line at the entrance that barely made it down the steps. Did we feel a bit like we were cutting? We felt more like we dodged a bullet, and much better than if we had arrived a hour earlier to wait outside in the hot sun. One obstacle averted.

BUY A MEMBERSHIP. It's $100, but you can cut the lines. Even though we arrived at the moment the museum opened, there was already an hour-long wait inside the museum to enter the exhibition. We did have the advantage of being able to look at European Paintings and Sculpture and Central Asian Art while we waited which was some consolation, but know that there is a special membership table set up at the entrance to the show for anyone feeling overwhelmed with more waiting. Also know that by 11:30, when we exited the exhibition, the line had nearly quadrupled in length, winding around the entire second floor balcony.

LEAVE THE KIDS AT HOME. The museum is a wonderful place for children, but not this show. Forget about some of the disturbing themes of McQueen's work, the first three rooms of the show are so crowded that they won't be able to see anything. The scene looks something like the picture above. Never mind how delightful kids can be when waiting in a slow-moving line.

GET THE RECORDED TOUR. You might think you know everything there is to know about Alexander McQueen, but the tour not only contains important commentary from curator Andrew Bolton, but also from Sarah Burton, Philip Treacy and several other people with insightful, often surprising things to say about the designer. Besides, the item descriptions in the exhibition are at about mid-shin level, and even the introductory comments on the walls are difficult to read through the crowds.

HAVE PATIENCE. As we mentioned, the first rooms of the show are so crowded and bottlenecked that you might feel on the edge of a claustrophobic fit. if you persevere, however, the congestion seems to ease up after that, and you can more fully appreciate the show.

It takes an extra effort to see this show, for sure, but it is well worth the trouble. It turns out that MCQueen was an even more thoughtful and creative designer then he was given considerable credit for being during his short career. The exhibition shows him to have been the rare decorative artist who was able to transcend his chosen discipline. See it while you can.

STUNT du JOUR: Barneys To Turn Window Dressing Into Dressing Room With Daphne Guinness

As we have said, for better or worse, there is no end to the surprises coming out of Barneys these days. The latest item is the announcement that socialite and fashion icon Daphne Guinness will be dressing for this year's Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala in Barneys' Windows.

It's a new twist to the time honored wager to take off one's clothes in Macy's windows, but Ms. Guinness does not appear to have lost any bets. It is part of a six week collaboration between the two called "Fashion as Art" which will reportedly include several performances and an installation featuring items from Guinness's own vast closets as well as some belonging to the late fashion figure Isabella Blow (whose entire wardrobe was posthumously purchased by Guinness).

Whether all this qualifies Daphne Guinness as a bona fide artist is open to what is certain to be a noisy debate, though many have considered her ever more elaborate style of dressing to be a form of performance art. It's worth noting that this Year's Costume Institute exhibition will focus on the late Alexander McQueen of whom Guinness was a major customer if not one of his biggest.

Set your calendars for a minor fashion media frenzy

Dressing in Barneys window (NYPost via Racked)

YOUR WEEKEND PLANS: Sonia Delaunay Gets A Long Overdue Showcase At The Cooper-Hewitt

Designers love to talk about the mixture of Art and Fashion, but few, if any, have been able to straddle those worlds with the skill and integrity of Sonia Delaunay (pictured in 1925 at left, in her studio), a name that should be familiar to scholars of both disciplines. The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum opens “Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay,” the first major American exhibition devoted to the artist in 30 years.

The Russian born Delaunay alternated painting and design throughout her life. She married artist Robert Delaunay in 1910, and most of her clothing design took place during the 1920s. The museum has a few precious examples of her fashion work on display including hats, bathing suits and a spectacular embroidered coat made for the actress Gloria Swanson (below, right). Such things are extremely rare and so the opportunity to see them in person is well worth the visit to the Cooper-Hewitt. As the show focuses mainly on her design work (it is at the Cooper-Hewitt, after all), it contains only one full oil painting, though it is a stunning one, but includes early design collaborations with poets Apollinaire and Tristan Tzara to name a few which gives you an idea of the kind of avant-garde circles the Delaunay's frequented. Interestingly, Delaunay never directly translated a painting to a textile design. She kept her disciplines discrete, but her colorful aesthetic naturally pervaded both efforts. Though she stopped making clothes after 1929, and devoted herself to painting by the mid-30s, her textile designs continued through the support of Dutch department store Metz & Co. Much of the exhibition consists of these original designs, many of which remain familiar and popular today, and are shown from initial design sketches through variations to the final product. Never has a bunch of textile samples seemed so fascinating.

Delaunay has long been a inspiration for fashion designers over the years including Perry Ellis, Emanuel Ungaro and Yves Saint Laurent among many others, and her textile designs continue to be popular today. Most visitors will be struck by how, decades later, her work continues to look modern and fresh. One of the things The Shophound appreciated most, however, was the way Delaunay managed to make that Art and Fashion connection seem so natural, especially when compared to some of the overhyped, heavily marketed collaborations we see today. Aside from a timely recognition of Delaunay's talent and contribution, the exhibition reminded us that great design often happens on a smaller, more personal scale, and when outside business comes in for support, it can happen without all of the corporate commodification we are so accustomed to now.

The exhibition runs through June 5th, and if it is not enough of a draw by itself, you can always make it a double header with the continuing Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition. If Jewels and Design aren't enough to get you up to the Cooper-Hewitt, then we aren't quite sure why you are reading this blog at all.

Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay through June 5^th at the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, 2 East 91^st Street at Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side

Click all images for a larger view in a new window

THE WINDOW WATCHER: Hugo Boss Shows A Neighborhood Tribute

It's difficult to show in a photograph, but its worth taking a trip down to Hugo Boss's 14^th Street boutique for a look at Béatrice Coron's intricately cut and painted Tyvek panels called "Hooks & Hookers", depicting the history and mythology of the Meatpacking District. Subjects include, according to the artist's website, "voyeurs, artists, decision makers, writers, readers, posers, lovers, shoppers, patrons, computer addicts, carnivores, party-goers, bikers, cyclists, New Yorkers and tourists. Among the scenes, there is a shepherd on the high line, a cow swims at the Gansevoort Hotel, an Egyptian cow is at the Standard Hotel, an angel is partying, and a Hugo Boss patron has a leashed piglet."

We can get behind pretty much any artwork with that point of view, which should be plenty entertaining to anyone who can remember the grittier days of the Meatpacking District. The artworks were listed as being on display through July 12^th, but as of Monday, they were still there, so be sure to stop by on your way to pick up an iPhone.

Béatrice Coron (Official Site) at Hugo Boss, 410 West 14^th Street between 9^th & 10^th Avenues, Meatpacking District

Pop-Up Report: Ryantown At Earnest Sewn

British artist Rob Ryan has taken over the back room pop-up space at Earnest Sewn with a vast array of his signature stenciled artworks and textiles. Ryantown will be up through the end of May. Venture towards the far side of the rustic denim dealer, and you'll find a profusion of items ranging from the inevitable printed t-shirts to greeting cards, tote bags, painted tiles, pillows dishes and all sorts of other baubles and novelties. All are touched with what looks like vintage folk art patterns which, upon closer inspection, reveal poetic musings and inventive designs. It's one of the more charming pop-ups that Earnest Sewn has hosted, and definitely worth a visit for anyone in search of Mother's Day gifts.
Ryantown at Earnest Sewn through May 31^st, 821 Washington Street between Gansevoort & Little West 12^th Streets, Meatpacking District
Rob Ryan (Official Blog)

Costume Exhibition Du Jour:FIT Pours On The Seduction

If you haven't made it down to The Museum at FIT to see its outstanding exhibition, Gothic: Dark Glamour, then we strongly suggest you hurry on down there since it closes on February 21^st. While you are there, be sure to stop into the museum's Fashion and
Textile History Gallery on the street level for Seduction: 250 Years of Sexuality in Fashion, a survey of what constituted alluring apparel over the last two and a half centuries.
While our contemporary culture has no shortage of sexy clothes and the people who wear them (hello, Pussycat Dolls), it's always interesting to see how in times past the hint of a waistline, fabric softly draped over the bosom and a slightly low cut shoe equated major flirtation.
The show is pulled entirely from FIT's treasure trove of an archives, and runs until June 16^th which coincidentally is the day the museum's Isabel Toledo retrospective is scheduled to open.
Like all FIT's exhibitions, Seduction is free of charge, no small consideration these days.
Seduction: 250 Years of Sexuality in Fashion through June 16^th 2009 at The Museum at FIT Seventh Avenue at 27^th Street, closed Sundays & Mondays

Designer Tribute Department:Louis Vuitton RevisitsStephen Sprouse In January

If all goes as planned, January will be Stephen Sprouse month as the art, publishing and luxury worlds combine to pay tribute to the late designer. While lasting commercial success sadly eluded Sprouse, he has become an admired cult figure among the fashion crowd and especially with collectors who covet his increasingly rare original pieces.
Deitch Projects will open a Sprouse retrospective called "Rock On Mars" on Jan. 8 at its Wooster Street gallery and Rizzoli will publish "The Stephen Sprouse Book" shortly thereafter. Joining in the fun, and likely to garner the most attention, Louis Vuitton will be revisiting its 2001 collaboration with the designer with new versions of the graffiti monogram he designed as well as a signature day-glo rose motif that will adorn bags, shoes and a special capsule apparel collection that will all be available on January 9th.
The special collection was suggested by the gallery, and Vuitton will not be reissuing the original collaboration pieces, but offering new variations in a similar vein. “I tried to take what Stephen had done at Vuitton and then kind of flip it in my head, and make it Vuitton’s work for Stephen, not Stephen’s work for Vuitton,” creative director Marc Jacobs tells WWD, “I just felt it was a funny way to play with it, to pretend to be Sprouse for a bit, and use the work that he did, and then bring it back to the work that he did before I collaborated with him.” With Sprouse's heyday, the 1980's, an increasingly influential touchstone for the fashion world, a visit with the designer's colorful, rock-influenced aesthetic should be a welcome and timely distraction for our suddenly gloomy times.
To further promote the event, Jacobs has been photographed by Terry Richardson for Harper's Bazaar in his favorite outfit- nothing, of course- strategically carrying a Sprouse/Vuitton duffel, keeping the image publishable in a major national magazine.
Vuitton Brings Back Sprouse (WWD)
Marc Jacobs Exposes The Latest It Bag (Harper's Bazaar)

New York Nostalgia Moment: Keith Haring's 50th Birthday

Regular shoppers at the Bowery Whole Foods have been able to track the progress of a loving recreation of a Keith Haring mural at the corner of Bowery and Houston Street. Deitch Projects and the Keith Haring Foundation are sponsoring the artwork in honor of what would have been the artist's 50th birthday yesterday. Haring's appeal has proven to be remarkably durable since his untimely death nearly two decades ago, and his mural sized works mostly did not survive (although adventuresome art fans can find an original one preserved at a men's room in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on West 13th Street too explicitly erotic to picture here). The cheery scene pictured above was originally created in 1982, but faded shortly afterwards.
For anyone looking for a more permanent souvenir, UNIQLO has a new batch of  tee shirts featuring Haring's designs specifically to commemorate the occasion while supplies last.

UNIQLO 546 Broadway between Prince & Spring Streets, SoHo