Enjoy this picture of John Doyle Bishop

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm at the end of a Seattle visit right now and I've had a bunch of things going on. I promise a big, exciting update on my life soon. In the meantime, enjoy this ridiculous photograph of John Doyle Bishop.

Developing The Eye

Remember that awesome dress I wore to my awards dinner last month? Sometimes I just sit around and think about how awesome that dress is.

I know, right?

Well, one day I was sitting in my room thinking about how much I love that dress, and a lightbulb went off in my head. Hey! That pattern looks familiar! So I looked up at my bookshelf...

The wacky zig-zag pattern on my 2011 Anthropologie dress is an exact copy of a 1920s furniture pattern. My book had this to say:

"Block-printed linen furnishing fabric, designed by F. Gregory Brown, produced by William Foxton, 1922. This fearlessly modern pattern was one of the textiles shown by Foxton at the Paris Exposition in 1925. Not surprisingly, F. Gregory Brown was awarded a gold medal."

Not just any 1920s fabric- a gold medal fabric. How appropriate!

A few days later my Modern Textiles professor came in to Special Collections to do some research and I showed her my find. She was impressed, and told me with a tone of pride that I was "developing my eye." But then she pointed out to me that it was unlikely that the designer paid for the use of the pattern, and was just straight-up ripping it off. She/he can get away with it because so few people have the knowledge to call you out on it.

Then I started imagining myself as the lead in a fashion copyright detective show called "The Eye."

The Ghost of John Doyle Bishop

A few nights ago I had a dream about John Doyle Bishop. In the dream, I was aware of the fact that he was dead, so I guess he must have been a ghost, but he was introduced to me as if everything was normal. I told him how excited I was to meet him but he seemed bored with me.

Sometimes I wonder about my obsession with John Doyle Bishop. On the one hand, I think I’m doing a great thing by researching him and reviving his name. If I could meet him, he might gush with grateful thanks for all the work I am doing. But then again, how can I think I really know a person from reading newspaper articles and interviews? Can you really understand someone through anecdotes? Last weekend I ran his name through some ancestor researcher sites and was able to discover a listing for his family in the 1930 census, as well as his social security number. That’s right, I am such a creeper that I know his social security number.

U.S. citizen #441-09-7179

But I can’t help it. JDB is just so awesome. Sometimes I think I should start a twitter account under his name and just post all the hilarious quotes I have from him. I found out that he owned four full-length fur coats that he would wear around town, often to Sonics basketball games. When a second store at Southcenter failed he had all the labels cut out of the dresses and had them made up into a dinner jacket for him to wear. He pre-planned his estate auction, so that guests received invites on his stationary and were asked to wear black tie to the event, or at least “Doyle” green. Along with household things and giant photos of himself, the auction even included his white angora cat Shamrock.

A White Angora Cat!! When I was seven that was all I wanted in this world.

Explore-a-city

I keep vowing to go out and do things in New York, but since graduation I haven’t gone on a wild see-the-city binge. In fact, my tendency has been to savor being at home where I can take naps and work on my thesis. But this past week my cousin Laura came to visit, so I had reason to go tromping all around the island. Here is the highlight reel:

• Saw The Lion King on Broadway. Incredible. I have enjoyed following the train wreck that has been Julie Taymor’s latest foray into musicals- the critically maligned and critically injured stuntman extravaganza Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark- but seeing her costumes in The Lion King reminded me that when Taymor’s energy is channeled in the right direction, the results are staggeringly fantastic.

*Side note about the modern Broadway experience- The Lion King is now the second show I have seen where the audience behavior has been much more like that of a movie theater than a live theater performance. Based on the ticket price alone, it should be like going to the opera or a symphony concert. But at The Lion King there was a lot of audible chatting, infants sobbing, and the sound of people consuming the concessions they had bought in the lobby. Yes, that is right, concessions. When I saw Wicked you could hear the rattling of ice in soda drinks. Insert rant about society these days.

• When I started my Met internship this summer, I found out that my intern ID gets me in during off hours. So last Monday we visited the Met— when it was closed to the public. CRAZY. We were just wandering through empty galleries and going through roped-off areas. I was sure that we were going to get stopped and told that we were in an off-limits space but it never happened. Really I am amazed at the trust they put in their interns. I mean, I could have licked a painting or something.

• On Tuesday we took the Staten Island Ferry and decided to actually get off and see if there was anything to see. The main attraction seemed to be the Staten Island Museum, which boasted exhibits of science, art, and history. I can see why some Manhattanites feel like leaving the island is like falling off the end of the world. The museum was basically a few arrowheads, insects mounted on pins, and a booth where you could see rocks glow in the dark. There was one interesting area of oddities that featured a hairball retrieved from a cow’s stomach, but come on. I have been to many weird local museums in my time, and the ones out west usually have the decency to have a two-headed sheep or something.

• Tuesday night we went to see Anything Goes which was a very different but equally wonderful Broadway experience. It is just a straight-up old-school musical with fun costumes, ridiculous plot twists, and tons of tap dancing. TONS. You should stop what you are doing right now and watch this clip from the Tony awards. (This post is basically over, so you need something else to keep you busy anyway).

Post Graduation- The One Month Report

Here are some things that have been happening in my life.*

• Today on my way home from grocery shopping I walked past Rachel Dratch. She was carrying a baby and looked like your average slightly-schlumpy mom. Execpt that after I saw her, all I could think of was this.

• It occurred to me that since moving to Manhattan I have had more celebrity sightings. Not a lot, and not big names, but a few that were recognizable from movies I’ve seen. I saw Ron Livingston hailing a cab on 7^th avenue, and once saw Jennifer Coolidge at a coffee stand with her dog.

• Through some combination of subscribing to Vogue and working at FIT, I have gotten on the mailing list of every major fashion magazine. They keep offering me as “professional” or “industry” discount, and also explain that I could even make the purchase tax deductible if I can prove it is vital to my profession. And you know what? Fashion magazines are RIDICULOUSLY cheap. I think they make all their money on printed ads, so it is really only about circulation numbers rather than money from subscribers. I recently caved in and got Harper’s Bazaar for $7.97 a year, but somehow resisted getting Elle for 2 years for $9.

• Have you ever read the blog This is Why You’re Fat? Well, I am pretty sure the restaurant I went to this morning has been featured on that blog at least once. It is a tiny hole-in-the-wall place called Shopsin’s, and it has a menu that is completely crazy- both in terms of offerings and overall seizure-inducing layout. (click here to see it). I was very tempted by the “So Good,” which is a grilled cheese sandwich made out of French toast with a side of poached eggs; as well as breakfast combo tray B1, which includes a fried tomato BLT, a fried egg quesidilla, garlic potato skins, and a nutella crepe. However, I couldn’t resist the pancake union of two of my favorite things: red velvet and poppyseeds. Totally awesome.

• My biggest recent news is that I have been approved to live in Menno House for a second year! Woo hoo! More communal soup eating and loft sleeping ahead!

• Speaking of Menno House, the latest house obsession is the war on our rodent problem. For some time we have had frequent mouse sightings, and poison and snap traps didn’t seem to have much effect. About a week ago the manager invested in $50 electrocution traps, which are reportedly more humane than snap traps or poison. They are also remarkably effective. In one day, five were caught in the kitchen-- once hearing the telltale buzz just moments after the trap had been emptied. We have started a tally on the communal white board.

*I feel like that should be the name of my blog. Also, every other personal blog ever.

First page 239... next THE WORLD

In case you haven't heard, the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is drawing huge crowds in a way that is unprecedented even for the Met. It opened in May and already over 225,000 visitors have seen it. That number means that it has been constantly crowded and that on some days the wait to get in is over an hour (reportedly close to two hours on Memorial Day). Sure the show is visually stunning, and recognition of the McQueen name probably got a huge boost from the royal wedding, but what can possibly explain the massive public enthusiasm?

Wait a minute... what is this on page 239 of the exhibition catalog?

Me! The reason for the show's success is me! I did it!!

If you can't read the tiny font, make sure to click on it to see it in its larger glory. Or blow it up and print it out on a giant piece of paper that you can roll around on. I certainly did.

Photo Extravaganza

Today dear readers, I have a smorgasbord of photos for you! I'm not one of those people who always has a camera in her hand or a phone with incredible picture taking abilities, so much of my present life is left undocumented. For graduation I just assumed that other people would pick up my slack and be in the photo-snapping mood. Luckily I was right, and photos from graduation week have been rolling in via email and facebook. So here are the best of the bunch.

Here is me at the awards dinner with Denyse, the head of my program. The lighting at the venue was strange.

Jim was in town and I dragged him to the awards dinner with me. We survived by looking fabulous.

Me and classmate Rebecca at graduation

Audrey and I taking care to keep our hoods in the proper over-the-right-arm position

A blurry picture of the whole gang (at least those who attended) and our two main professors in their Harry Potter robes.

After graduating, beer and cheese dip was required (with classmate Ariele)

On the Thursday after graduation most of us met up for drinks on the lawn of the Cooper-Hewitt museum. Pictured here is the majority of the class of 2011, as well as the four part-time students who entered with us in the Fall of 2009. In the center is our fashion history professor Lourdes Font, who fittingly has assumed some sort of hands-outstretched Messiah pose as two of my classmates kneel at her feet. Later she performed a miracle of turning jeggings into a pair of real pants.