Continuing the Guo Pei exhibit at Bower's Museum 06-08-19

Layers and layers and layers....  of silk, precisely pleated.  

Applique and quilting. 

Bamboo basketry with gold applique and embroidery.

Shades of the 1950's.

Recognizing Mary Quant. 

Wedding or birthday cake colors.

Metallic plaques, very tightly fitted. 

3-D triangles like a backpack. 

You saw the shoes in yesterday's post. 

Some more possibilities for normal wear. 

Quo Pei does design for celebrities - clothes for special events.  

Elvis is ready for liftoff. 

"Elvis" from the front. 

And a repeat of my favorite.  How conventional I am!

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Friday Feet - At the Guo Pei Bower's exhibit 06-07-19

The costume.

The shoes.

And a detail of the shoe.

These shoes go with a costume made of bamboo, using traditional basket weave technique.

Shoes that go with a more wearable costume.  Not walkable, I think. 

They are fabulous, jeweled, gilded, embroidered.  But oh-so-uncomfortable, I'm sure. 

The models in the videos of the runway show walked verrry carefully and slowly.  They were all tall and these very high shoes made them tower over the audience. 

Maybe more costume pictures tomorrow.  

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Bower's Museum visit 06-06-19

Yesterday, Wednesday, a friend and I visited the Gua Pai exhibit at Bower's Museum in Santa Ana, CA.  The clothing by the Chinese couturier is mostly not for wearing.  She considers it her art expression and it is spectacular.  I took a lot of pictures, but am still struggling to get them from my phone into my laptop.  I'm working on that.  

This comparatively simple gown is my favorite.  My friend pointed out how 1950's it is and that is probably why I like it.  Yep, guilty as charged, I would have worn this to my high school prom and any other special event I could.  

I had hoped to post about 20 images taken at the exhibit, but it has taken me hours to just get this one to show.  Maybe tomorrow I will have better luck.  Meanwhile you can visit the Bower's website for additional images.  The exhibit lasts until July 14 - I highly recommend it for the style, embroidery, fabrics, etc.  

I believe this is the correct URL to reach the website:

https://www.bowers.org/index.php/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/448-guo-pei-couture-beyond#collection

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Friday Food 11-30-18

My friend Carol and I avoided the terrific, but welcome, rain storm on Thursday, by changing our trip to Bowers Museum to Wednesday.  It was a gorgeous day, pleasant temperature and lovely blue sky.  We had lunch at Tangata, the restaurant at Bower's, visited the gift shop to support the economy, and made a stop at Barnes & Noble on the way home. 

We both chose the salmon salad and it was excellent.  Beneath the perfectly cookd salmon, watercress, orange, red onion, avocado, and a bit of tomato, was a small bed of quinoa with the dressing all around it.  

We had bread and butter and water with it. 

There was a table full of museum people next to us, and I noticed several also had the salmon.   Carol had her back to them, but had a view of the patio through the windows behind me.  

From my seat I could see just a corner of the mural on the outside wall. 

Just as I took this  picture a cloud rolled over the sun and eliminated the palm shadows. 

And for a laugh, here is the view as we came out of the gift shop.  The dog belongs to someone in the gift shop and he had been very good, but then he wandered out into the foyer and then into the restaurant.  He is a very nice dog, but not allowed in the restaurant, of course.  One of the gift shop ladies was trying to get the harness on him.  He was being very patient.  He gave nice polite kisses. 

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