A FASHIONISTA HOLIDAY IN NEW YORK (c) By Polly Guerin

Fashion is art and art is fashion!!! Fashionista venues dominate New York's social scene from Sonia Delaunay, Vivienne Westwood, Bill Cunningham to The Bottomless Closet. Here’s the scoop!!!
COLOR MOVES: Art & Fashion by SONIA DELAUNAY

An abstract painter and extraordinary colorist known for her jarring color juxtapositions and abstract textiles, Sonia Delaunay’s oeuvre inspired countless designers who followed. She caused a stir in 1925 when she opened her Boutique Simultane featuring fashions with Picasso-ish harlequin motifs and abstract prints. Designs highly coveted by the fashionistas of her day included Nancy Cunard and the wives of the modernist architects including Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius. The exhibition at the Cooper-hewitt National Design Museum is on view from March 18th –June 5, 2011. 2 East 92st St. www.cooperhewitt@si.org.
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, 1980-1989

The only British Designer who could not only explore extremes in dress, but make sense of them, Vivienne Westwood is the star attraction in an exhibit at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology that examines the designer’s transition from street styles (and Punk innovator) to high fashion designer during the 1980s, and how it changed her work, her press coverage, and her clientele. Westwood continues her emphasis on eccentricity and subversion and student curators Emma Kadar-Penner and Audrey Chaney, FIT graduate students are co-curators. At The Museum at FIT, Seventh Ave. at 27th St. 212.217.4558. FREE. www.fitnc.edu/museum.
BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

The fashion world’s celebrity photographer gets his due recognition in The Documentary, “Bill Cunningham New York” opening on March 16th through March 29, at the Film Forum. Bill has been seemingly invisible at tony social affairs snapping away at the celebrities. I have also often seen him, camera in tow, on the corner of 57th St. and Fifth Ave. capturing the latest fashionista trend or documenting street fashion for the New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, the Soho News and Details magazine. When he isn’t on foot Bill is a reluctant fashion deity, riding around town on his worn-out bicycle dressed in the blue jacket of workmen in Paris. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. near Varick. 212.727.8110.
NATIONAL CLEAN OUT YOUR DRAWERS MONTH

The Bottomless Closet urges you to start spring cleaning (and ignite good karma)! Is that shirt collecting dust in the back of your closet, or those pants that you’ve shed too many bounds for, the perfect place to start cleaning out your drawers, too. Accomplish a good deed by donating the clothes to the non-profit Botttomless Closet NYC. Take it from Bethenny Frankel who told Life & Style, “You keep things in your closet that you don’t need. Give them away to someone who can wear them. For more information visit www.bottomlessclosetnyc.org.
Ta Ta darlings!!! I’m going to see Bill Cunningham at the Film Forum. Fan mail always welcome: pollytalk@verizon.net. For Polly Blogs go to my website www.pollytalk.com and in the left hand column click on the link to the Blog of your interest including thefashionhistorianpollyguerin.