FASHIONISTA'S REVEL IN MUSEUM OPENINGS (c) By Polly Guerin

What has fashion got to do with New York? Well for one thing it fuels employment, it pumps up the economy with amazing creativity and it earns New York City the title “The Fashion Capital of the World.” It’s the Best of New York, my friends, the very best inviting the fashion cognoscenti and the tourists more reasons to visit its museums. Here’s the scoop!!!
YOUTH AND BEAUTY: ART of the AMERICAN TWENTIES: Put on your cloche hat and shimmy dress and head for the Brooklyn Museum where the first wide-ranging exploration of American Art from the decade between the end of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression showcases a major exhibition of 138 paintings, sculptures, and photographs by 67 of the greatest artists of their time. Among the imagea Gloria Swanson, circa 1925, by American photographer, Nickolas Muray. Exhibit on view from October 28 through January 29, 2012, then it moves onto Dallas and Cleveland. At 200 Eastern Parkway www.brooklynmuseum.org.
TWO -DAY SYMPOSIUM ON FASHION ICONS AND INSIDERS: Fantastic, real, past and present from vampire dandies to Marie Antoinette to Daphne Guinness get in with the fashion intelligentsia where fashion icons, designers, authors, curators, and scholars cover such topics as: Daphne Guinness, one of today’s most original fashion icons, in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator, Museum at FIT. Dr. Caroline Weber talks about What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Thelma Golden, director, Studio Museum in Harlem on Black Fashion Icons and Dr. Peter McNeil, professor Design History, University of Technology, Sydney on Gay Fashion Icons. Thursday Nov. 3 and Friday Nov.4, 9:30 am-5:00 pm. At the Fashion Institute of Technology, 27th St. between 7th and 8th Ave. Haft Auditorium. Cost $100 both days. Registration is required. The Museum at FIT 227 W. 27th St., Room E301, NY, NY 10001-5992.
LE PARFUM: THE POWER OF FRAGRANCE Meet some of today’s leading perfumers, smell a selection of the world’s iconic fragrances, and hear the stories behind their creation. Could your fragrance be next? The Scent of History, Nov. 3 at 7pm features osmocurator Christophe Laudamiel who takes you on an olfactory journey with samples provided by the Osmotheque in Versailles. Members $35, non Members $45. The Power of Fragrance on Nov. 10 covers the influence of fragrance on identity, memory, and desire. $20 and $25. Speed Smelling on Nov 16th presents the world’s renowned perfumers and meet the noses behind Ralph Lauren’s Paulo and Estee Lauder’s Pure White Linen. $35 and $45. Alliance Francaise, Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th St. 8th Floor. http://www.fiaf.org/. Buy tickets at 800 982 2787.
TEXTILE THERAPY AND HAPPY COLORS: The Marimenkko flagship store in the Toy Building, 200 Fifth Avenue at 23rd St. is an explosion of brightly colored, signature upbeat prints for which the 60-year-old Finnish company is so famous. Armi Ratia and her husband, Viljo have partnered with textiles to teapots. Fans of Marimenkko’s signature poppy print, Unikko or Astrid Sylwan’s Vattenblank will delight in the fact that there’s even an on-site seamstress to whip up prints to your specifications say pillow covers, perhaps an apron, maybe a dress. Us.marimenkko.com.
ELSA AND MIUCCIA MEET AT THE MET: Remember you heard about this even first from PollyTalk. Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada will be the focus of the Spring 2012 Costume Institute Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and focus on how they broke with fashion convention and subverted notions of taste and glamour in the art world. Mark your calendar: Exhibition dates May 10-August 19, 2012.
Ta Ta darlings!!! I’m off to get some textile therapy and color my life with the colors of Marimenkko. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon.net. Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and click in the right hand column for direct access to Blogs like www.amazingartdecowomen.blogspot.com.