Saturday, May 9, 2015

Marc Jacobs and the Mystery Woman

Who's that gal?

The past week New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its annual major fashion exhibition with an event known as the Gala. I mention that in case you've been living under a rock. The fashion-possessed know to look for this each year as it churns up a lot of press— who was wearing what or what was wearing whom, who was with whom and— oh yes— the exhibit. This year's theme is "China: Through the Looking Glass", set to explore "the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion, and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries".

Yum

Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue and creative director of Conde Nast, is a big deal in all this. The galleries are even named The Anna Wintour Costume Center. She looked stunning in her Chanel gown. Can't say the same for everyone. There were a lot of "costumes" as opposed to "fashion". The exhibit itself was meant to be a combination of art and fashion and has left reviewers thinking the art didn't get a fair shake. This will probably always be a question: Is Fashion Art?

Winning Wintour

On to Marc Jacobs. His date for the evening was Cher. They are not BFFs, and he was nervous as hell to squire her to the Gala. The New York Times reported on date night in Thursday's Style Section.  Marc Jacobs has often been one of fashion's bad boys. He looked great this year in a classic tux, but three years ago wore a black lace dress over white boxers to the Met Gala. Shame on him; those should have been black boxers. Cher, who can be delightfully outlandish herself was very elegant (but still Cher) in her Marc Jacobs dress.

Marc meets Met, 2012
Marc meets Cher, 2015

The image at the top appeared in the print edition of the story. Marc, who was early to pick up Cher, has stepped outside the Four Seasons Hotel to have a cigarette. The woman in the foreground stopped me cold. What a great-looking New York City WOACA (woman of a certain age).

At first I thought she was stylist extraordinaire Polly Mellen (not thin enough) or the always-fabulous Gloria Sharp (who lives in Toronto). Marc Jacob's other date (for this photo at least) looks coolly elegant in a simple poncho-like topper and statement necklace. She's beautifully groomed, has great posture and is carrying one hunk of a leather "shopper". She's on her way somewhere and couldn't care less that Marc and a photographer are in her path.

Guess who?
Sharp Gloria

Wouldn't it be funny if she had been asked to walk back and forth while the picture was taken? Kind of like the famous photo by Ruth Orkin of the young woman being ogled on a street in Italy. That wasn't exactly staged, but the model was a friend of Ruth's, and she did repeat the walk a second time.

Ruth Orkin's iconic eye view






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