It's about exploring and sharing my creative adventures (mostly sewing these days) ~
~those activities that sometimes obsess, usually inspire, occasionally frustrate
~and always provide a delightful maze to wander through.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

"....the conventionally pretty need not apply." - Gaultier

How lucky can a blogging sewist get?  In one of those serendipitous good fortune days, I not only met with shams and margy, but....well...more about the rest of the day later....let's back up to the beginning of the day....

I met margy & shams at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco.  Just in case we didn't recognize each other (uh huh....) we all showed up wearing...you guessed it...Trippens!
The Trippen Triplets...all in similar, but different, boots.
And yes, they did indeed garner comments and compliments from complete strangers :)
Want to meet some new people?   Get yourself a pair of Trippens!

The plan for the morning was to see the extravaganza known as the Jean-Paul Gaultier Exhibit.   After hugs & giggles over our shoes, we headed in to the exhibit.  The first outfit you're greeted with is possibly my very favorite ever use of recycled blue jeans:
This is a jacket & pants, with painted on imagery.
The denim is part of the jacket.  Love!
On the wall next to this mannequin is this quote:

This leads you into a show with THE most innovative mannequins ever!  The talking faces are so mesmerizing that it takes awhile before you can even focus on the clothing designs.   Which are unique eye candy indeed - this is a man who got his first job in fashion design at age 18 - with Calvin Klein, no less.   And I believe his creative mind has been working non-stop, inspired by muses who come from a different stratosphere than the rest of us, ever since.  My eyeballs were ready to bleed by the time I'd reached the end.   In a good way!

I won't even attempt to describe the exhibit in detail - if you get a chance, just go see it!   Here are a few images (non-flash photography is allowed)
Every Mermaid should have walking sticks for land travel, right?

Never-ending ribbon cascade - quite gorgeous!

I believe this was pret-a-porter -
wouldn't you wear it?
Millions of Feathers overlaying a punky, spikey metal base
The mannequin was a singing diva.
And sometimes there are no words......

We sat to rest our eyes & discuss what we had seen (& invited a friendly stranger to take a few pics....)

When who should we spy, but two more fabulously creative sewists, Ann at Stitch Me Up and the (as yet) blogless (but we need to change that) Barbara V, who posts her beautiful creations at Pattern Review:

This was the serendipitous luck I mentioned earlier - Margy and Shams were headed off to points south, while Ann and Barbara were going to go to the Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor, so I continued my blogger-meetup day with them, especially nice since you get a discounted ticket if you see both exhibits on the same day :)

The Cult of Beauty exhibit was MUCH calmer than Gaultier, but very interesting from an art and fashion history view.  I loved seeing the examples of how William Morris, Christopher Dresser, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, and the "Aesthetes" of the day influenced such dramatic changes in the art world...and the way we lived.
I think that Barbara & Ann still looked pretty fresh here;
I was ready to head home by then!

Such a delightful day!   It's back to the work world for me tomorrow, but I may sneak in another bit of blogger meetup time if I can....stay tuned.....

14 comments:

Andrea said...

Jillian, so glad to see you back! Your post on Sunday brought tears to my eyes and made me smile.
It looks like a fun day, great pictures!

glorm said...

What an interesting day you had. (Leave it to me to make an understatement.)

Ann said...

I was so delighted to accidentally meet you today. What a great event! I realized, after reading your last few blog posts, that I didn't get around to commenting on your beautiful outfit today. The gorgeous blouse and intriguing belt really caught my eye. Now I see from you earlier post that you concocted that belt from a necktie. Brilliant! Sorry to read about your mother but it sounds like it was finally her time. How fortunate you were to be able to care for her. And by the way, the view of your garden from your office window is a true delight for the eyes. Hilarious that you and Shams took home the wrong bags of fabric. We stopped at FabriX briefly today on our way home from the Cult of Beauty exhibit. We really enjoyed the exhibit but our brains were beginning to complain about overload by the time we finished. Hope to meet up again soon. Ann

Jillybejoyful said...

Yes, interesting is a bit of an understatement. I came home, wrote this blog post, laid down & immediately zipped off to a 2 hour sleep!

Jillybejoyful said...

Awww, thanks Andrea :) It was a fun day indeed :)

Jillybejoyful said...

Thanks Ann - it was such a pleasure to get to spend a bit of time with you! I do look forward to doing it some more (if/when you live closer, for sure!)

shams said...

Thanks for writing up the incredibly fun events of today! What a hoot to run into Ann and I finally met Barbara V!! I am so glad you met up with them again at the Legion of Honor.

I just got home and am too pooped to blog, but thanks so much for such a great writeup!!

Unknown said...

Amazing and fun that we ran into each other yesterday! So nice to meet you, Margy and Sharon and to have shared some time together at the Legion of Honor. The art exhibits were fabulous and your journaling of it - lovely! Looking forward to seeing you again sometime!

Re's Home on the Road said...

Knew you would love the Gaultier! Would have been fun to have been able to meet Margy and added my Trippen's the to mix. Next time! Keep in touch!!

RhondaBuss said...

What a feast for the eyes, the exhibit as well as you lovely ladies in your great shoes!

Jillybejoyful said...

Me too you! Now then, what are we going to do about getting you a blog? ;-)

Jillybejoyful said...

Welcome home Re! With a little luck (& some sales) we'll all have a bigger variety of Trippens to play in by your next visit ;)

Jillybejoyful said...

Awww, how sweet of you Rhonda :D

Jillybejoyful said...

And the second day was just as delightful as the first! (and I needed another nap as soon as I got home!)