City of Fashion and Design

Saturday May 5, 2012

Cite de la Mode a du Design....Les Docks.  It's a new very bold and contemporary building on the Seine which has exhibit space for special fashion and design exhibits.  It also has spaces where young designers can exhibit and market their work.  It has workspaces, shops and classes.....anything to do with design.  It looks kind of sparse....like it's so new, all the spaces are not yet occupied and the whole place is just getting started.  I think it might have just been completed this year.

Here are some pictures I pulled off Google Image, and some I took of the long walkway and also looking out across the river.  The design of the building is really amazing.

Looking down at the river and across the river......I could not tell if the green in the building across the river (the second picture below) was an actual reflection of Les Docks, of if they had added green panels to that building to reference this one....

I saw two special exhibits at this amazing place.  The first one was the great Haute Couture designer Cristobal  Balenciaga.  It showed how his designs from the mid 1930's to the mid 1960's were influenced by classic references from the 1700's and 1800's and also references from his Spanish heritage.  It was very interesting because it had some of the fashions...beautiful long dresses, and shawls and jewelry from those periods, displayed right next to the Balenciaga's creations.

My very favorite pieces were the things from the 1960's and 1967 in particular....don't know why those particular dresses just grabbed me....but they did.  So here are some of the pieces from that exhibit that resonated with me....

Isn't this hat just to die for..............love, love it......

Now this dress is kind of hard to read....it is so architecturally structured.  But I was totally enthralled with it.

The second exhibit I saw was called "White Drama" by the designer Rei Kawakubo.  It was very odd....but interesting and fun.  First of all, they were displayed inside very large clear plastic bubbles.  About four or five...or more within each bubble.  According to the explanation, these odd white "dresses" (?) were meant for major stages of life - birth, marriage, death and transcendence.  I'll leave it to you, which you think is meant for what............

Actually, the more I look at these white creations, the more I like them.........

There are also places for new designers to market their wares.....not very many are set up yet, but I particularly liked this one...........the colors and the garments and the setting.  All the clothes were suede or leather.