{"id":30431,"date":"2015-09-18T23:55:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T03:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=30431"},"modified":"2015-09-22T12:11:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T16:11:14","slug":"china-at-the-costume-institute-zang-toi-at-nyfw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/china-at-the-costume-institute-zang-toi-at-nyfw\/","title":{"rendered":"China at the Costume Institute, Zang Toi at NYFW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, I squeezed in a visit to the record-setting<\/a> “China: Through the Looking Glass<\/a>” exhibit just before the end of its run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.<\/p>\n

\"met2resize\"What Wendy Wore to the Museum<\/strong>
\nDress:<\/strong> James Perse (purchased between 1998-2002; previously seen here<\/a>)<\/em>
\nShoes:<\/strong> Dolce & Gabbana (2015<\/a>)<\/em>
\nPurse:<\/strong> Yves Saint Laurent (2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

The show would have been worth it for this gold Guo Pei<\/a> dress alone.<\/p>\n

\"Front\/side

Front\/side view.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rihanna wore a fur-trimmed yellow cape by Guo Pei when she attended the opening gala for the exhibit in May<\/a>. She’d look amazing in this dress too. That girl can handle a lot of fabric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Back

Back view.<\/p><\/div>\n

But each room of the huge exhibit was amazing, even if it was so heavy on Dior that I wondered if the design house was a sponsor. (It wasn’t. The corporate sponsors were Yahoo and Conde Nast<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In between the many extravagant ballgowns, I was pleased to discover this lower-key Yves Saint Laurent look by Tom Ford.<\/p>\n

\"ysl\"<\/p>\n

The ensemble was from the Autumn\/Winter 2004\/2005 collection, and I’m now positive my own chartreuse YSL skirt is from the same collection.\u00a0 When I posted the skirt in 2011, I guessed that I had purchased it between 2002 and 2005.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>

Click for original post.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now I can narrow that down to 2004-2005. I am pining for the blue jacket to wear with my skirt.<\/p>\n

I was not-so-pleased to see examples <\/a>from Vivienne Tam’s provocative 1995 Mao-printed collection<\/a>, just because they reminded me that I foolishly gave away one of her sequined Mao t-shirts before I realized that closet purges are not all they’re cracked up to be<\/a>. That t-shirt — which showed Mao with a bee on his nose<\/a> — is one of my major purging mistakes, along with a silver<\/a> Todd Oldham top<\/a> that I am still hoping to replace via eBay or Etsy.<\/p>\n

I also thought it was a shame that the exhibit didn’t include anything by my designing friend Zang Toi, who was born in Malaysia to a family of Chinese descent and whose Fall 2014 collection was inspired by 1930s Shanghai<\/a>. The Met could have shown one less John Galliano-designed chinoiserie fantasy for Dior in order to include a piece by a New York-based designer who actually represents his Chinese heritage in his designs, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

I wore one of Zang’s Shanghai-inspired qipao<\/a> dresses to his Spring 2016 runway show for New York Fashion Week last Friday.<\/p>\n

\"zangtoidressresize\"What Wendy Wore to Zang’s Show<\/strong>
\nDress:<\/strong> Zang Toi (Fall 2014 collection, purchased in 2015)<\/em>
\nShoes:<\/strong> Prada (2010)<\/em>
\nPurse:<\/strong> Prada (2007)<\/em>
\nStrange background:<\/strong> I worked in this building when I was at CNN<\/a> from 1995 to 1999.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a close-up of my hair and makeup. Julie Matos of Warren-Tricomi did my hair as usual, but my friend Josie Torres wasn’t available to do my makeup.\u00a0 I really love what pinch-hitter makeup artist Hailey (Hayley? Hailie? Why are there so many spellings of this name?) of Kimara Ahnert<\/a> did with my eyes.<\/p>\n

\"zang

I’m wearing my own peridot and diamond chandelier earring design.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I walked into the venue, one of the first people I saw was Zang’s friend, model Deborah Fenker, who got a laugh out of my outfit: When we posed together after Zang’s show last September, she was wearing this very dress.<\/p>\n

\"debwendy-765x1024\"<\/a>

Deborah wearing the dress last year. Click for original post.<\/p><\/div>\n

Zang’s collections are often inspired by his travels, and this show was all about the whites and blues of the Greek island of Santorini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Santorini

Santorini blue.<\/p><\/div>\n

Zang is sticking to his tradition of including a bare-chested male model on his runway. Why not? The dudes always get an enthusiastic round of applause.<\/p>\n

\"Oh,

Oh, hello!<\/p><\/div>\n

I was more fixated on a surprising pop of green amid the blues and whites. Zang’s greens are always beautiful, and this diaphanous gown on model Georgie Badiel was my favorite look.<\/p>\n

\"georgie\"<\/a>

Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Georgie knows how to work<\/a> a dress like no other. Check out this photo of her in 2013<\/a>. Now that I think of it, I most often want the dresses that Georgie wears! Zang needs to clone this woman and have a whole show modeled by an army of Georgies.\u00a0 I’d have to buy every single look.<\/p>\n

UPDATED SEPT. 22, 2015, TO ADD: I added a link to my green Zang Toi dress to Not Dead Yet Style’s latest Visible Monday post. Click here<\/a> to check out the other visible ladies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Earlier this month, I squeezed in a visit to the record-setting “China: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit just before the end of its run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. What Wendy Wore to the Museum Dress: James Perse (purchased between 1998-2002; previously seen here) Shoes: Dolce & Gabbana (2015) Purse: Yves Saint…<\/p>\n

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