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.

Tidbits from graduation

Oh Lordy. I still cannot believe that grad school has come to a close. As much as I'd like to go on about what it all means and what a big accomplishment it was, it doesn't feel real. Maybe because I know I still need to finish that pesky thesis, or maybe I am just in denial. In any case, here are some tidbits from the end.

-On my last day of class I was about 10 minutes into my walk to school when I realized that I had left a crucial part of my final assignment at home. I ran home to get it and then had to decide if I would still walk to work (probably arriving to class about 15 min late) or take a taxi. Really, there would have been no harm in arriving late for that particular class, but I felt that after two years of punctuality and on-time assignments I shouldn't break the streak on the last day. So, I chose the glamorous New York route and took a taxi to school. Class got started late.

-On Monday I went to the FIT awards dinner and got my medal. In true FIT fashion (hah!) it was a totally weird event. It was at a fancy space and the food was amazing but the whole thing seemed to be organized to be as dull and awkward as possible. My medal was nowhere near as fabulous as I hoped. It looks ok, but on the back it has the oh-so-personal inscription: "Honors 2011."

-One more note about the awards dinner food- it struck me as totally odd that they seemed to have no alternate meals for various dietary restrictions. For the main course we were all served a plate of beef and potatoes. Hasn't the era past in which you can serve a hunk of meat and just assume everyone is fine with it?

-At Graduation we walked in to a techno-remix of Pomp and Circumstance. Not classy.

-Simon Doonan was given a lifetime achievement award by the school. His speech ended up being the most memorable, probably because one of the key pieces of advice was "Always have a drag queen in your life."

-None of the undergrads got to walk across the stage but they did read the names of everyone who was there. The largest international student population at FIT is from South Korea and there are a lot of American students with Korean heritage as well. There were about 10 people with the last name of "Kim" and after about the 6th, everyone seemed excited to see exactly how long the streak would last. When the announcer finally moved on to "Krauss" there was an audible groan.

-We were told that as graduate students we would get to walk across the stage but there was a seemingly last minute decision that we would also get "hooded." So we all had to carry our M.A. hoods in a very specific way over our right arm and walk on stage when the announcer (who had an awesome, movie trailer voice-over delivery) said our name. It was kind of a great moment. Except that once you were on stage you could see that most of the undergrads had left by that time.

-The only moment that got to me was when one of my classmates said goodbye. Most of us are staying in the city for the summer but this girl's parents were driving her back that day to her upstate hometown. I almost cried and that was the only moment it started to feel real.

-After it was over I went out for lunch with the two other classmates who hadn't had any family or friends attend. We went to a bar in our graduation robes. We failed to get free drinks.

Gone so soon

On Wednesday this week I will go to my final grad school class and turn in my last assignment. On the following Tuesday I will walk at graduation in a robe complete with a master's hood and extra long sleeve thingys. While the act of picking up my robe suddenly filled me with pride and excitement, my dominant feelings have weirdness and sadness. Weirdness because wow...where did the two years go? Moving out to New York seemed like such a big leap in the first place, and I remember there were times during my first semester where I would zone out in class and start thinking to myself "Is this really happening? Did I really move across the country and start grad school?" And sadness because overall this program has been amazing and my classmates have been wonderful, and this school experience is all going to vanish in just a few days. Lately my zoning-out moments have led to thoughts of "I should savor this."

The strongest "I should savor this" moment came with last weekend's Symposium. It was a rousing success. We all presented very well and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I was proud of myself (several people said that mine was the most entertaining) but I was also brimming with pride for my classmates and being part of such a great group. At my suggestion, my parents opted to come to the symposium instead of graduation-- and unless the ghost of Coco Chanel turns up to give the keynote address, there is no way graduation is going to be more interesting than that symposium. (and let's be honest, even if the ghost of Coco Chanel DID show up, neither my parents nor I speak French, so it would probably be a bit letdown anyway).

In case you are concerned with all this talk of "zoning out" in class, never fear. I do pay attention most of the time. As proof of this fact I am going to be awarded some sort of medal for academic achievement the night before graduation. A medal! Don't you think of medals as more for athletic achievement? Maybe the chain will be a string of faux pearls and the pendant will just be a picture of Karl Lagerfeld giving a thumbs-up. On the back, as a nod to the conservation aspect of my program, it will be engraved to read "Cleaning is not reversible." Even if it isn't quite that cool, I think I should wear it if I ever join another active trivia team. What better way to say "I have a lot of knowledge about something weird and specific" than a medal from fashion grad school.

Undressing the Fashionable Myth

This coming Saturday is our big Symposium in which I will finally present my paper on the hemline index. Although I've mentioned it a few times on this blog, I realize I haven't barraged you with info on it, even though it has been something I've labored over all semester. The main myth I'm proving wrong is this idea that the concept was invented in 1926 by George Taylor (a "fact" which is repeated all over the internet). After finding nothing from him in 1926 I found a few sources that pointed instead to his 1929 thesis about the hosiery industry. I got the thesis from interlibrary loan and wasn't able to find a hemline theory anywhere. He did point out that shorter skirts in the 1920s meant better times for legwear manufacturers, but that really isn't the same thing as proposing a correlation between the world economy and hemlines.

As far as the hemline index itself, I think I make some pretty sound arguments against it. The message of my paper, as with many others in my class, is that fashion is so much more complicated that these myths lead you to believe. There is no one thing (like the economy) that influences trends, and there is no single way that people express themselves with fashion. Other people's papers have taught me to be suspect of any claim about someone "inventing" a fashion item (the little black dress, the mini-skirt), and to be careful about seemingly familiar terminology (What design elements are actually reminiscent of ancient Greece? Were all women in the 1920s flappers? What exactly is couture?). By the time the symposium is over I will have heard each of the papers four times, so I've become a secondary expert on all the topics. So next time you see me, you can use the below as a guide "things I shouldn't bring up if I don't want Clara to talk incessantly."

(click to enlarge)

Conversational Velvets

Last week I had to choose a topic for my final project in Modern Textiles. There was one idea I was really excited about, but another student snapped it up before me (did you know that famed Seattle architect Paul Thiry also created designs for textiles?!). So I poked around at work and tried to find something in Special Collections that would be applicable. My boss recommended the J.B. Martin point papers- a huge collection donated by a famed French velvet maker. Point papers are basically graph paper on which you design a woven pattern –each square representing a crossing of the warp and weft.

Since there are thousands of point papers, I had to set a narrow focus. Most of the patterns are florals or geometrics, but there a couple of drawers of conversationals. “Conversational” is the industry term for novelty designs- the type of prints I was looking at for my menswear project. The thing is that usually when you think of whimsical conversationals you think of prints, probably on cotton. But woven into the fabric? In velvet? So part of my task will be trying to figure that out--for what possible purpose would you get these patterns woven in silk velvet?

Bassinet decoration for an infant emperor

Used for sexy underthings by a woman trying to seduce the ambassador to the Netherlands

One of Oprah's dogs has this on the walls of his winter residence

High holy day vestments for a priest in the church of Beefology

????