Museum Style: Iris Apfel+Tavi Gevinson+Judith Thurman on Schiaparelli and Prada

We'll be in New Jersey. Which is closer to The Met than DC. Think I can talk H into letting me take the day in Manhattan on our anniversary (or is it the day after our anniversary? I can never remember)? Oh, wait! We honeymooned in Manhattan. And went to The Met (and saw Anglomania). It's the perfect way to celebrate 6 years, right?

Now. For a babysitter.

Image via It Girls Don't Cry

What: Sunday at the Met: A Conversation on the Evolution of Chic with Iris Apfel, Tavi Gevinson, and Judith Thurman

When: Sunday, June 17, 2:00–3:30 p.m.

Why: Good Taste/Bad Taste: The Evolution of Contemporary Chic. style icon Iris Apfel (age 90) and fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson (age 16) for a conversation across generations on what it means to be chic in the 21st century, moderated by New Yorker writer Judith Thurman, who wrote the introduction to the exhibition catalogue Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

This program is held in conjunction with the Costume Institute exhibition, which is on view at the Met through August 19, 2012. This event is free with museum admission. Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Museum Style: Isabel Toledo and Robin Givhan at the Corcoran

Go, please.

What: Roots of Style with Isabel Toledo

Where: The Corcoran Gallery of Art North Atrium and Auditorium

When: Thursday, 14 June, 6:30 Reception + book sale and signing, 7:45 Discussion

Why: Because Robin Givhan's going to lead the discussion with Ms. Toledo, one of the, as the event notes say, "most celebrated independent fashion designers of our time." I could write something else, except that it's true. She is.

Cost: from free to $35.00, here.

I'd buy my ticket now, but this is the day H and I pack The Beans up in our Swagger Wagon and drive north down tha shore for 2 weeks. So watch Rosa Loves... for a post on the evening. She's the one who alerted me (how'd I miss it?!), so I'm sure she'll capture the night with her lovely images and share. Or at least now that I've written that, I hope she will.

Image via

Just another one of the amazing events with The Fashion Group International, like the one on Yves Saint Laurent, Classicism and Transgression I missed.

Museum Style: Daphne Guinness at The Museum at FIT

H and I have both been itching to take The Bean on her First Trip to The Big Apple. Mama-wise, it's a dilemma. The PrudentMama says, "She's only 4, there's plenty of time for that." The HipProgressiveMama says, "Expose early and often." The mama who knows her Bean the best says, "Who're you kidding? Do it. She's a City Girl, capital 'C,' capital 'G.' She was born for this.

Until this morning, PrudentMama was winning.

Then The Museum at FIT email arrived in my inbox this morning, taunting HipProgressiveMama and MamaWhoKnowsHerBean with Daphne Guinness.

By way of backstory, The Bean seems naturally inclined towards design. Sure, I encourage her in All Things Stylish, but it does seem to be her thing. From the time she could hold a writing implement, she's been content to draw or write for literally hours. Since we transitioned her to a big girl bed (and she figured out months later that she could get up in the morning without us coming in to get her), she gets up most mornings, comes in to us for a very quick snuggle, then asks, "Can I go draw?," then dashes off to her easel by the big picture window in the dining room.

We've taken her to the National Gallery, colored pencils and itty bitty Moleskin in tow, where we picked out a painting to copy. Bedtime reading ranges from Dr. Suess and The Runaway Bunny to Andrew and N.C. Wyeth tomes (and Jamie & Betsy's The Stray) and the Met's Anglomania exhibit book. [Here comes the BraggingMama part] Another mama, who has an art background and helped out in her preschool class, commented that she "gets" art, following suggestions on using different crayon strokes and adding her own imagination when capturing a basic "still life" they were doing in class.

Then there's Fancy Nancy. Her favorite book of all time.

So I'm thinking that taking her to see the Daphne Guinnness exhibit is a no-brainer. She'll love the fashion and, dare I say it, appreciate the design. I can't wait to hear which piece will be her favorite.

NYC, here comes The Bean. You'd better watch out!

What: Daphne Guinness
Where: The Museum at FIT, 7th Avenue at 27 Street, NYC
When: September 16, 2011 - January 7, 2012
Why: Quite simply, there is no other fashion collection like this. Ever.

UPDATE: I'm pretty much convinced we have to go. Just have to find a date. I can take her out of school for this, right? She can write a report to share with her friends. I'm sure it'll fit into the DCPS curriculum. And I think The Bean and I should have been invited to the opening party, which Italian Vogue captured oh, so glamorously.

Museum Style: Worth the trip to NYC

Something tells me I won't be able to make it north for this, but just in case you make your way to The Big Apple this month, the Museum at FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) has was promises to be an amazing exhibit to jumpstart your style inspiration...

Or maybe it's the perfect excuse to take The Bean to New York for the first time...

What: Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89

When: March 8, 2011 - April 2, 2011

Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89 will be the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Westwood’s fashions of the 1980s. The exhibition will highlight the significant shift in Westwood’s design style during this decade. Her work of the early 1980s was prominently featured in edgy magazines such as i-D, and her following was comprised mainly of street-style insiders. By 1985, her more structured, feminine, and historically-inspired styles began to attract the attention of the mainstream press and widened Westwood’s audience.

Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89 will feature over 50 objects—including clothing, photographs, and video. Highlights will include a unisex ensemble from the Pirate collection (1981), a woman’s ensemble from the influential Buffalo collection (1982), and a pair of Westwood’s iconic “Rocking Horse” boots from the Harris Tweed collection (1987). Editorial photographs from a number of prominent magazines, including The Face and British Vogue, will further illuminate Westwood’s impact on 1980s fashion. Runway footage and video interviews with the designer will also be on view.

This exhibition has been organized and curated by FIT graduate students of the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice program.