Museums

Today, Mater, Bride and I went to the Peabody Essex Museum.  A lovely building, housing open, airy atria between what feels like a few small buildings.  It specializes in decorative art from early American colonial and post-revolutionary history, with an impressive collection of objects from the China trade which flourished in the vicinity.

My favorite exhibit is a complete Qing Dynasty house, Yin Yu Tang, (top) built a couple of centuries ago and lived in by one family for eight generations, and then brought piece by piece from the Huizhou region of China in 2002.  After getting a private tour yesterday of our own ancestor's home, the John Whipple House (which I neglected to blog), I'd rather tough out life in the way of the Huang family than the Whipples (although the Whipple House is, to be fair, a couple hundred years older yet than the Yin Yu Tang house -- I'm not sure enough of Chinese History to be able to say whether the comforts of the late 18th century in China had improved much since the early 17th century).  (They improved a lot, here.)

The Peabody was also showing Iris Apfel: All Fired Up! an exciting clothing exhibit.  Or, maybe I should call it a costume exhibit: the private wardrobe of Iris Apfel, an apparently well-known Interior Designer.  Her clothes sense is unique, to say the least - bold colors and shapes, ranging from haute couture to ethnic costume to flea market finds, accessorized to the Nth degree by multiple bulky necklaces, heavy wrist cuffs, and huge round glasses.  She fairly often would design matching shoes or boots to be made in Italy.  None of us would wear the jewelry (Mater and I didn't like much of it at all, Bride liked it but thought it too heavy to wear), but we noticed that the shoes were all sensible (never a high heel and usually round- or square-toed -- comfortable looking, even if hand made out of antique paisley shawls to match a coat found at a flea market in England).

Most of the clothes shown were from the 1980s through the 2000's, when Iris was in her 60's to 80's -- this is a woman who has not let age slow her down or change her "look".

In keeping with the general fun sense of the exhibit, there is an accompanying Runway show that you all can play, too.  Click here, and you can select items from Iris's wardrobe and mix them up on the models anyway you like.  To get the true Apfel flavor, remember to layer the necklaces, and occasionally wear a brooch as an earring.

I was inspired to create the outfits above. The one on the left is actually her "travel outfit" with matching luggage, crafted from tiger-stripe upholstery her own weaving company produced.  The outfit on the right features a piece that Bride "must have, now" -- the skirt, which is an historic artifact coincidentally from the Qing Dynasty, worn here with a 1980's sweater set, and layers of necklaces.  It's fun -- I recommend playing!