Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - San Francisco, CA (Legion of Honor Museum) - August 2022

I follow a bunch of designers on Instagram because I love fashion.👗 I am not a fashionable person and I'm not a consumer of anything in the high-end fashion world, but I do greatly enjoy looking at it. One of the designers I follow is Guo Pei. Earlier this year, she posted that several of her collections will be on display for a temporary exhibition called Fantasy Couture at the Legion of Honor Museum. Right then and there, I knew we'd be travelling to San Francisco to see it. 

The Legion of Honor Museum is modeled after its namesake in France. It is located in the center of Lincoln Park and is a gigantic museum!! I think we spent over three hours there. Luckily, we got in early because it got insanely busy around lunch time. We had planned to have lunch at the museum café, but the line was out the door and down the hallway. Its website stated that everyone was to purchase a timed ticket in advance, but I don't think they followed that rule because the museum felt like it was above capacity. 

Fair warning - I took at least one picture of every single dress that was on display, so this blog post will be 90% photo album---which you've probably already noticed. If you don't like dresses, turn back now! 👗 There were other works of art throughout the museum. Only the basement was dedicated to Fantasy Couture. A ton of paintings were housed on the main, second and (maybe) third floors -- I honestly don't remember how many floors it had. LOL 😅 But, there were MORE DRESSES scattered throughout the museum to accent the other artworks. I found it hard to appreciate the other pieces because my attention was immediately drawn to the gowns. 

One thing that I really appreciated about Guo Pei's dresses is that I understood them. I looked at the dress, then read the description with the artist's intent, and I could comprehend her vision. They weren't too pretentious, philosophical, or political. That's not to say that I thought her dresses were simple, because they definitely weren't. I don't like when designers are too artistic; their garments don't make sense, and the viewer won't "get it" unless they're as enlightened as the designer is. I also don't like the opposite of that when designers try to have an ultra-woke message, and it seems like they're just pandering. I felt neither of those intentions when I was at the Fantasy Couture exhibit.  

Another thing that I really liked about the exhibit is that the dresses looked like real wearable dresses. I like avant-garde stuff, too, but I want my clothes to mostly resemble regular silhouettes. Although I could never add all the intricate detailing and handiwork to any of my dresses, if I wanted to sew one that looked somewhat like what I saw at the museum, I probably could find a pattern for it.

The more labor intensive dresses had labels that showed how many hours it took to make each dress. Some were up into the tens of thousands of hours!! The labels also showed the materials used. Guo Pei worked mostly with silk and exclusively Swarovski crystals. 

My favorite of her collections is Garden of the Soul. I loved the vibrant colors of the floral motifs. Each dress had so much detail. 😍 There was the dress itself, but if you looked underneath the skirt or inside the sleeves, there would be more crystals and flowers!! I also liked the wigs. Shoes and accessories were an important part of each of her ensembles. One of the placards stated that she liked dressing women in insane shoes with impossible heels to show off how strong her women (models) are. 

My second favorite of her collections is Alternate Universe. Her pieces imagined a world where the animals took over and she advised us to be gentle to all creatures because we never know what will happen after reincarnation. I was astounded by the dresses at the exhibit so I watched the runway show for this collection when I got home. I wasn't as impressed with them when they walked. I think it is because I didn't see all the details and the dresses mostly looked heavy and static on the runway. On the other hand, a collection that wasn't a favorite of mine at the museum, Elysium, walked magnificently down the runway at its show.

One of the dresses had several dolls/puppets sewn in. Each one of her ateliers made one to add to the dress. I thought that was a nice gesture since so many of her dresses are done by hand. I was completely mesmerized by the detailing in her designs. So much so that I was doing the "you're in someone's way so you move left and they move left, and the dance continues for a while" thing without knowing it. The woman who's way I was in glared at me and said some nasty remark before I noticed I was in her way. 😬 LOL I was just trying to get to the next dress! 

Wes's favorite collection is Himalaya. It was a summer collection but the fabric made me think of winter. I guess the colors were summer. Wes said it would be too obvious as a winter collection. The dresses were made from old Japanese silk scarves. She noticed the strange patterns that the embroidery made on the back of the scarf so she used inside-out scarves in her designs. 

I don't remember the name of it, but she had a collection inspired by nighttime in Paris. It was so shocking to see the black dresses. 😮 Everything up until then was either gold or colorful. The back of one of the gowns had a silhouetted scene (like a shadow puppet show) embroidered onto it. It is the bottom right picture in the collage below.

I love everything about the pants in the bottom row of the above picture. 😍 I actually majorly adore both of the outfits on the bottom row. It's weird looking at my pictures again as I type this because I was in a daze the entire time at the museum; I don't even remember taking some of the pictures. It felt like a dream being surrounded by all of the dresses.

I felt so alive and inspired while walking through this exhibit. I told myself that after this experience, I would learn how to sketch (a very far fetched idea ... a toddler draws better than I do, but you get crazy thoughts while you're immersed in something you love, right?) so I could start designing some of my own dresses. As of now, 2 months after our vacation, I haven't drawn a single thing, haven't designed a pattern, and have only sewn a few subpar dresses. 😕 I need to get my motivation back in order!! Wes bought the gallery art book for me -- best souvenir ever but a encyclopedia-sized book is NOT the best gift when you're travelling with only carry-on luggage -- so I probably just need to look through it again to get my brain going.

The last collection in the exhibit was one that she dedicated to her youngest daughter. She designed it while pregnant, and imagined what her daughter would do if her Barbie's came to life. Her models (above) dress a zillion times nicer than my Barbie's ever did! 

After floating through the Fantasy Couture exhibit, we still had time to see the rest of the museum. I took a picture of each painting that I noticed a dog in. There was a mummy on display, which was cool. I really like mummies and artifacts.

We went to the museum on a Thursday and flew out early Friday morning. I still had visions of dresses dancing through my head when I noticed a tiny fashion exhibit at the San Francisco airport! It showed fabric and dresses made from pineapple leaves. Apparently, artists use the hairs on the leaves to weave fabric. How amazing!! 🍍 I am so glad that I got to see the Fantasy Couture exhibit. It is the third fashion exhibit I've seen and I think it is my favorite so far!

Erica & Wes go to the Dior fashion exhibit

Earlier this year during one of my sewing group's "Sew n' Share" sessions, Claire told us that the Dallas Museum of Art will be hosting a Dior fashion exhibit in the summer. And that this exhibit was a pretty big deal. She told us that it's only touring two museums in North America and it will be in Dallas for a limited time. I immediately went to the art museum's website (https://dma.org/dior) and started planning a trip for me & Wes. We went over this past weekend and it was pretty great. I took a TON of pictures (all posted at the end of this blog and on Instagram @ragsreborngifts).

Before we get into the museum, you know I have to write a bit about where we ate. 😋 I don't think I planned it to be this way, but each one of our meals was Korean. For breakfast, we stopped in 9 Rabbits Bakery. We got there a little after it opened but for some reason, my pastry already tasted stale. I got a chocolate chocolate chip cake and Wes got a chocolate cream filled French horn. I also ordered a Korean iced coffee, which tasted like a Vietnamese coffee but with a lot more sugar and condensed milk.  

We went to BBBop for dinner. They served modern Korean fusion rice bowls. Wes ordered one of the featured rice bowls off the menu and I got a "build-your-own" bowl and some samosa eggrolls to share. I liked them because they only had a light curry taste and weren't spicy. It was a quick and casual dinner spot with friendly staff. We both really enjoyed the food (much more than what we had for breakfast). The restaurant has a couple of unique sauces. My favorite was the cucumber tomatillo sauce. There was a community bulletin board, so I had to leave a RagsReborn business card. LOL

BBBOp was in a strip mall that also had (supposedly) a boba tea cafe. We walked toward the sign for Panda Tea to find that it was closed for renovations. Luckily, boba tea cafes were in abundance according to Google Maps so we just drove a few blocks down to Craft Boba... which was permanently closed. 😑 Our third attempt was to Royal I.T Cafe. It was open for business! Yay! We almost wished we ate dinner there (even though BBBop was delicious) because they poké bowls (which I really like) and Thai food (which is Wes's favorite). We ordered our drinks and made a mental note to come back soon for lunch. I got a rose mike tea with boba and it was really refreshing. Did I mention it was over 100° Fahrenheit the entire time we were driving & walking around?

Alright, now to what we've all been waiting for... Dior: From Paris to the World!!

A few things you should know about the exhibit before you make the drive to Dallas:

     * tickets must be purchased in advance and the tickets are only valid for a certain time. Our tickets were for 3:15pm. We didn't arrive until closer to 3:30pm 😓 but by the grace of God, the ticket taker had mercy on us and let us in. I must have had a very distressed and ashamed look on my face as I handed her our late tickets. 

     * traffic and parking in downtown Dallas is horrendous... or at least it was the weekend that we went. There were a lot of activities going on downtown including some sort of food truck festival, a costume convention (where I saw an Elvis impersonator and Wes saw some anime cos players strutting around the streets) and the opera. Wes navigated us to Hall Arts Center parking garage that just so happened to be free when we left. I think paid parking ended at 5pm and we left a little after that. Yay!

     * viewers are only allowed in the exhibit for a certain amount of time (we were there from about 3:30 - 4:45pm and I think the longest you're allowed to be in there is an hour) and if you dally, a museum worker will gently, but unapologetically, prod you along--which happened to me.  #embarrassing Wes likened it to herding cattle. LOL The narrow layout of the exhibit forced viewers to walk in a straight line in one direction only and we were all scrunched very close together. 

     * the Dior exhibit is open in the evenings, but the art museum itself closes at 5pm on the dot. No joke. There was a Mary Magdalene/religious oil paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio gallery that I really wanted to see but couldn't make in time. I had a very stern security guard inform me of museum hours and shoo me away (it was only about 5:10pm). 😒

So... the experience at the Dior exhibit wasn't that great. Let's just say that the viewing is heavily regulated by museum staff. So even if you aren't deterred by the crowds and want to linger and really appreciate a dress or a section of the exhibit, it was extremely hard to do so. I found that to be very stressful, which made it hard to really feel and fully take in what I was looking at, but the dresses were absolutely AMAZING. I mean, just look at the beading and detail in the dress pictured above! All of them were exquisitely made and so beautiful. 

Per the museum guide, "His [Christian Dior] unique style, inspired by art and culture, celebrated the triumphant return of femininity. His vision of clothing based on strong, architectural lines resonated in a world rebuilding itself from the ground up after the devastation of World War II." There have been six creative directors in the Dior fashion house after Christian's death. The first three designed more classically (Gianfranco Ferré being my favorite) and the most recent three represented couture in a more avant-garde way. 

John Galliano's work was the first we encountered when we walked into the modern designers' section. I saw his dresses and audibly gasped and said, "Oh my gawd!" (I realize I'm probably a pretty annoying museum mate... just a warning if you ever want to go gallery viewing with me.) Per the museum guide, "before each collection, John Galliano visited other countries and filled scrapbooks with objects, photos and collages from his travels. Ideas emerged from a mix of inspirations across time and space."

The main attraction was a long hall filled with dresses From Paris to the World. It showcased several of Dior's collections that "were created for different markets in Europe, the United States, North Africa and Asia." There was a small section of dresses (pictured in the bottom left corner below) designed for and worn by celebrities.

The last, and probably my favorite, part of the exhibit was Splendors of the 18th Century and Field of Flowers. They were two separate collections but the dresses had the same theme, in my opinion. They were romantically feminine but still creative. Per the museum guide, Christian Dior said, "After woman, flowers are the most divine creatures." The beautiful pastel dresses were embellished with floral motifs, which was fitting since he was an avid gardener. I liked the juxtaposition of coming toward these classical dresses after viewing the loud haute couture designs in the From Paris to the World dresses. I found it be a nice note to end the visit on.

Both Wes & I were captivated by the unique creativity and workmanship of the garments. I am really glad we went despite the stressful parts of our visit. My favorite collections were The Office of Dreams (picture on my Instagram... beautiful white shirts, jackets and dresses all hanging on the wall), Fields of Flowers/Splendors of the 18th Century and Gianfranco Ferré: The Postmodern Couturier (pictures also on Instagram...amazing black & white striped ballgown with a ruffly train). Wes's favorite part was the From Paris to the World collections, except for, he wanted me to add, having to crane your neck to see some of the dresses on the top tiers. 😆

One last thing-- on our way out, we stopped by SCRAP Denton. It is a little warehouse, actually a non-profit retail space--filled with second-hand craft supplies sold at a discount. I wish we had something like that in Oklahoma City because I exclusively shop there for all of my sewing and crafting needs. There was an entire wall of shelves that had nothing but fabric scraps. I was in heaven!! They also had thread, buttons, bobbins and other sewing notions. The supplies are donated by the public and sold cheaply to encourage environmentally sustainable behavior by reusing "trash". I probably could have bought more but I tired to only stick to items I needed-- which was fabric for stuffed dinosaurs (colors and patterns on bottom right corner of photo above). Speaking of that, fall craft shows are quickly approaching! I will have my schedule posted very soon. Time to get to sewing!