When I went to New York I was lucky enough to see the Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I found out about this exhibition while looking on all the main New York museum websites to see if there was anything I would want to see while I was there (nerd much?), and this beauty popped up.
The day we chose to go was quite a good day as it was the ‘Museum Mile Festival’ so entry to the museums along museum mile was free from 6-9pm, so we got in for free. Also, there were little events happening on the street (despite the rain) as the road had been closed off, so that was a little added extra to see and get involved with.
Anyway, the actual exhibition itself was brilliant. I would definitely recommend it if you are in New York and interested in fashion or either of the designers. It is on until the 19th August 2012, again I sound like an advert for exhibitions but oh well haha. The curators of the exhibit had put together the two designers in such clever ways, almost so you could tell the designs apart but so that they flowed as collections and outfits together. It also juxtaposed the opposites in the designers’ styles, for example what they called the ‘waist-up, waist-down’ approach (I think thats what the referred to it as). This showed how Schiaparelli put emphasis on clothing above the waist, and Prada put emphasis on clothing below the waist. There was also a video shown at the beginning of the exhibit where 2 people acted and conversed as though it were the 2 designers having a conversation and what they would say to one another if they were able to (the impossible conversation element). All in all it was a really really good exhibition if you like that kind of thing.
If you can’t see the exhibition but you want to see more of it then there is a book available all about it which I bought while I was there, and its really good 🙂