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Did you make the trip to New York to see the Charles James exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Because it's breathtaking. (Especially the voluminous "clover gown" that belonged to San Francisco's Austine Hearst.) It made us long for the days of Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier and Bulgari at San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums. And then we realized, it's been a while since we've had a proper fashion exhibit in town. What gives?
The museum gods have heard our cries for fashion, and are attempting to pacify us with "High Style: The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection" at the Legion of Honor.
Jan Glier Reeder, consulting curator for the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will curate the exhibit, which will highlight "key points of 20th-century fashion design with rare pieces from French couture houses, including pieces by Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, and Hubert de Givenchy." There will also be works from American designers of the 30s and 40s such as Charles James, Elizabeth Hawes, Sally Victor, and Gilbert Adrian.
If you can't make it to New York for the Met's Charles James exhibit before it closes on August 10, you can see his architectural designs locally next March.
· High Style: The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection [FAMSF]
· Met's "Charles James" Exhibition Has Historic Ties to SF's Hearst family [SF Gate]