Blueberries, Balenciaga, & Beautiful Bloggers

Balenciaga!!!

I may be a bit of a country girl at heart, but I so love the resources & opportunities available in an urban area - events like the Balenciaga exhibit at the deYoung Museum make my heart sing, especially when shared with a group of fellow sewing & design enthusiasts like this collection of beauties:

Jean, Beth, shams, Jennifer, Sydney, Rose, Me, and Natasha (photo courtesy of shams & the lovely Aussie fellow who kept on patiently clicking our camera shutters)  And a big Thank You to Beth, who organized this outing.  :)

One of my favorite little moments of the day was when, after thoroughly & happily inspecting all of the details in the pieces displayed in the first section,  several of us rounded the corner into the next area & saw DOZENS more goodies ready to inspect and admire, & we all let out a collective squeal of delight, then burst into laughter!   There were pieces from the 30's through the 60's, and most of them would be completely relevant & wearable today....maybe not by me, but if I had an appropriate event to attend & someone offered it, there were more than a few outfits that I would don in a heartbeat.....and my face would hurt by the end of the evening because of the smile that I was wearing along with it!

Here's one that I would get a LOT of use from:

Love love LOVE this jacket!

And then, of course, there are the outrageous.  The top third of this one is actually a cape/wrap thingie, so you can, indeed, feed yourself once you've removed it:

This one is just too much fun!:

And then there were the classically sublime pieces:

This shot is from another exhibit (same pieces, different arrangements):

What I like about the above exhibit is the mirrors - the SF show had no mirrors, so you couldn't see the other side of the garments, except for those which were displayed so that you could walk all the way around them.

The exhibit was SO worth visiting, but even better was a chance to connect with fellow BABES (Bay Area Bash Expressly for Sewists) whom I had met, plus a number of new to me sewists.   We settled in with each other so comfortably, inspecting all of the details, yearning to touch the fabric, & chatted up a storm during a yummy lunch at the Cafe.   All on a beautifully sunny day!

What do blueberries have to do with all of this?  Well, before I left home, I carefully donned an outfit completely self-sewn, ready for a day of sewing chat & design delight, & just before walking out the door I grabbed a glass of blueberry juice.....which somehow ended up all over the front of my outfit!  :(    So after a quick change & a thorough rinse of my clothes, I was a bit late, but happy to find my patient fellow sewists chatting in the lobby & waiting for the stragglers.

And at the end of the day, the blueberry juice came out :D

Perfection.