Daphne Guinness

In PressOctober 10th, 2011

My apologies for such a long silence. My mother died last spring, and I fell behind.

 

It has been a tough year for me, but a wonderful year for fashion exhibitions.  Savage Beauty, the Alexander McQueen exhibition curated by Andrew Bolton at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was one of the most beautiful and powerful designer exhibitions that I have ever seen. I was lucky enough to see it three times. But  seeing it was a bitter-sweet experience, since it reminded us how much we lost with McQueen’s tragic suicide. Truly, he was one of the greatest designers of all time.

 

Also terrific is the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. I flew up lfor the opening  at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and was amazed by the “living” mannequins used to display 140 of the designer’s irreverent, sexy styles – the flesh dress (before Gaga), the sailor suits, the bustiers,…. I was also thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with Jean Paul Gaultier about our forthcoming exhibition, Queer Style, which will open in September 2013 at The Museum at FIT.  Amazingly, this will be the first major fashion exhibition to explore the significance of the gay influence on fashion!

 

This summer, I was in France where I saw Madame Grès: La Couture à l’Oeuvre, organized by the Musée Galliera and presented at the Musée Bourdelle.  Then when I returned to New York, it was all hands on deck to finish the Daphne Guinness exhibition here at FIT.  It has been a great pleasure collaborating with Daphne on this exhibition, which will run from September 16, 2011 through January 7, 2012.

 

Sincerely,

 

Valerie Steele