New York City is known for its culture and diversity which is what makes my city a huge tourist attraction. We’re one of the few cities world wide where you can eat, drink or party well past 4am! New York plays host to numerous events and today, June 14th 2011, marks the return of the museum mile festival. This happens once a year, usually around the second week of June, where all museums from 82nd street, up to 106th on fifth avenue only, stay open form 6 – 9pm and are totally free.
Even the special/ limited time only exhibits are free but you’ll have to arrive early as lines tend to get extremely long. Keeping that factoid in mind, I had to carefully plan what I really wanted to see as I learned from previous years; I’d only have time to go to one museum. I knew I just had to see that new Alexander McQueen exhibit that’s being showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 83rd street and Fifth Avenue. I arrived at the museum around 5pm as NYC + FREEBIES = A LOT of early birds and I was right.
The Met’s official closing time is 5:30pm and since so many people didn’t even know about the event, the MET started to empty out around 5:15pm. I asked the guard if they planned on “closing” the museum at 5:30pm and re-opening at 6pm and they said “No”. I noticed around 5:35pm a few people were still walking into the MET, which was now pretty empty, so I decided to just walk in and start before 6pm. I went to the guard to ask where the McQueen exhibit was but before I could open my mouth, she told me where McQueen’s exhibit was. I walked right in without waiting on any lines!
Immediately I was awestruck by his first two pieces which greet you at the entrance , an all red dress and an all white dress; both complete w/ mesh and lace face masks (The first picture posted w/ this article shows the dresses I just mentioned). McQueen’s exhibit is grouped into sections which then breaks down into specific shows he did during certain years. This collection represented most of the designs from both before he died and from two designers who continued on with his dream.
He seemed to have a running theme of nature vs. Gothic vs. futuristic design. In every piece, from shoes to head-wear, you can definitely see elements of nature in every piece either from the colors he uses to the materials, most of which were various bird feathers. The Gothic pieces were all black, naturally, but they featured a mixture of leather, vinyl and bird feathers. Most of the headpieces were ‘gimp’ styled, made out of leather and featured several bright gold colored zippers while the rest were lace/mesh mixed with black bird feathers.
The futuristic designs were mostly off white, pale gold and lilac in color but no feathers or nature type features were incorporated. I wonder if this was McQueen’s’ way of saying ‘nature has no future’. These designs all had a very human theme as the actual costumes were either geisha girls, or sports related like a football players complete with helmet.
My descriptions and pictures just don’t do McQueen’s work justice. I strongly suggest everyone go see it before it closes in September 2011.
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