Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum

By: Erika Shantz

The first ever virtual museum was launched on December 5,2011 by Valentino at the Museum of Modern Art. It is called “Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum” and it is designed to feel like walking through the actual museum. It showcases over 300 gowns, which are available to view in 360-degree range. The seven galleries span 10,000 square meters giving you the opportunity to view these gowns indefinitely. Not only you can see the gowns, you can also view the editorials, sketches and interviews, with photos of each dress. Each of these dresses will tell a story from the beginning to the end result.

Being able to view it on your computer means that you will have as much time as you would like to view it. They won’t be any pushy people standing behind you waiting to move on, it will be just you and these great pieces of art through Valentino’s life.

Anne Hathaway stated, “ it is the perfect way to absorb the beauty of Valentino’s Fashion.”

This will change art forever. The museum in now available to download at http://www.valentino-garavani-archives.org/.

McQueen Exhibition Launching May 2nd

by Melissa Laborie

With the passing of one of fashions most creative and daring designers last year there was much talk about what would happen with the continuation of Alexander McQueen's line. Sarah Burton has been named as his predecessor, yet it is still unknown if his artistic genius will be seen in the collections. Luckily, the fashion and art fans

will now have a chance to view some of his genius at the newly announced exhibition for the Met's Costume Institute Gala.

Anna Wintour and Sam Cam launched the unveiling of the exhibition at the Ritz on February 22, 2001 for members of the London Press. The perfect location for such an event as McQueen showed his first collection at the Ritz with Isabella Blow in 1992.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will focus on 100 of his creations starting with his Angles and Demons collection up until his final posthumous 2010 Pomp and Circumstance collection. The exhibition will surely feature fan favourites including my personal fave: The Widows of Culloden, a luxurious and romantic line pulling

inspiration from his previous name-making Highland Rape line with a focus on tartan.

"McQueen's work fits easily in the discourse of art. He can be considered no less than a great artist" said Thomas P Campbell, director of the Met.

For all you McQueen fans, the exhibition will run from May 4th to July 31 - book your NYC trip now!

Alexander McQueen: A Masterpiece

The MET Celebrates the Late Fashion Designer

By: Katie Beattie

After almost a year since his passing, the late and greatly missed British Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen is being honoured by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The MET announced that its 2011 edition of its tony “Met Ball”, as Vogue’s annual Costume Institute Gala at the museum is known, has been inspired by the late designers work, who was an art collector himself, his final collection was inspired by Old Master paintings.

The gala event will be taking place on May 2^nd, 2011, and an exhibition of McQueen’s work will follow, running from May 4^th to July 31^st, entitled “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”. A range of pieces will be included in the exhibition, from McQueen’s 1992 graduate collection from Central St. Martins, to designs created for Givenchy in the 90s, and pieces designed for the designer’s late friend, fashion icon Isabella Blow. The exhibit, “Savage Beauty” will not be arranged chronologically but around specific themes such as “The Savage Mind”, “Romantic Gothic”, “Romantic Nationalism”, “Romantic Exoticism” and “Romantic Primitivism”. The creative consultants’ for the exhibition are Sam Gainsbury and Joseph Bennett who produced many of McQueen’s runway shows.

The exhibit is expected to attract a great number of people and will be an emotional event for McQueen’s family, friends and fans. Curator of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton told Women’s Wear Daily, “His catwalk presentations were outstanding and straddle art and fashion. We want to get across two elements- the spectacle of the runway presentations and the beauty of his craftsmanship”.