Shandy Pockets | An online travel magazine
  • Front
  • Features
    • Travel Features
    • Interviews
    • Photo Features
    • Travel Archives
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Eat & Drink Reviews
    • Attraction Reviews
    • Product Reviews
  • About
    • Media Kit

The Mizrahi of the human condition

18/5/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History
Jewish Museum, New York City

The last time I really thought about the fashion world was in September 2001. When the planes hit on the morning of the 11th, the city was replete with fashion journalists, who had all converged in New York to cover New York Fashion Week. As events unfolded, fashion correspondents became the reporters on the ground, way out of their comfort zones, and what resulted were strikingly human reports, devoid of accepted newspeak.

I think that’s why I generally avoid reading about fashion. I presume it’s a world devoid of real humanity, interchangeable clothes horses paraded around exclusive paddocks, sporting nothing that the average person could or would ever wear. I realise it’s a vaguely ignorant viewpoint, but it’s one that kind of fuelled itself.

The Jewish Museum in New York City wasn’t the place I imagined I’d have humanity in fashion demonstrated to me, but exploring Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History, was like being sideswiped. 

Mizrahi’s back story helps: a pudgy Jewish kid with ridicule issues is fortunate enough to have the parents (with the generosity/resources) to escape his strict religious school to go to New York’s High School of Performing Arts and Parsons School of Design.

By 26, Mizrahi is showing his own designs, rocketing into the NY fashion scene, acting in Woody Allen movies and starring in charismatically candid documentaries about the fashion world (1995’s Unzipped) – self-effacing and insecure enough to garner sympathy from the accessibility, something you suspect not many high-end designers could pull off.

The exhibit begins with a huge wall of swatches, meticulously arranged and speaking to Mizrahi’s dedication and panoramic arsenal of influences. The first room is his broadside on fashion from early shows that would become his signature – a satirical, almost political mix of luxurious fabrics and ideas mixed with everyday, mundane items.

“Baby Bjorn Ball Gown” (1998) is a red satin dress accessorized with a baby carrier. This juxtaposition would stay with his through to works such as “Elevator Pad Gown” (2005) a floor-length skirt that assembled from (fake, but still) pieces of gray and blue movers quilts. There’s a snook being cocked at convention and the line between fake and authentic, because what are those things, anyway?

Some of the pieces might be obvious, one-line jokes, but I imagine that’s way more jokes than most designers ever tell. Added to his showpieces are otherworldly opera costumes and some incredibly engaging colour sketches. The clothing slowly hints at his evolution into his present day focus: making high-street looks for mass consumption. The t-shirts and leggings are already there in his couture repertoire; having dressed Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, Mizrahi now looks to providing for the everywoman.

The show ends with a video montage of Mizrahi’s career, with the glamour and the catwalks and the knowingly moody shots of him playing piano to his dog and the talk shows and the shopping channel segments. What comes across in all of them is the unabashed joy, and a true love of women. Mizrahi is like the kid who got the keys to the kingdom when life could have been so different. It takes work and talent to stay there, but I assume it takes even more to consistently retain the humour and the humanity, and that’s what An Unruly History celebrates.  

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is at The Jewish Museum in New York City until August 7th. 
2 Comments
Alan Smason link
26/5/2016 03:53:47 am

With your permission, I would be interested in republishing this piece on the Crescent City Jewish News. Please contact me via the email.

Reply
The shopping channel link
8/3/2017 12:59:00 am

I am Julia 25 years old, finding a very essential product in various website but not getting trusted information that made me anxious. Finally I got vast information about my product. Now I am using this. The shopping channel is the best in the world. So, I am very happy. Thanks a lot your website.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air Travel
    Americas
    Asia
    Books
    Celebrities
    Cities
    Competitions
    Eco Travel
    Europe
    Food/Drink
    Gadgets
    Guides
    Hacks
    Hotel Guests
    Hotels
    Humour
    Infographic
    Interviews
    Luxury
    Magazine Content
    Maps
    New Orleans
    News
    Passengers
    Photos
    Podcast
    Products
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Surveys
    Technology
    Trains
    Travel Writing
    Trivia
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Weird

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Shandypockets and the individual authors, 2013, 2014 and 2015. All rights reserved. Online travel magazine, travel features, travel reviews, travel interviews, travel funnies, hotel reviews, product reviews, travel photos


In the course of writing features, we will sometimes be hosted. Where appropriate, we will indicate this within the article. For all queries regarding Shandy Pockets, see the CONTACT page, above.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ewan-M, Chrissy Olson, Powershift2012, Mr Thinktank, jennicatpink, nafra cendrers, eastmidtown, ST33VO, PYONKO, shaman2477, Upupa4me, Infrogmation, jikatu, Janitors, Robert S. Donovan, JD Hancock, beltz6, beggs, brownpau, sierragoddess, badgreeb RECORDS, mikedarnell1974, °Simo°, Daquella manera, Alex Schwab, ST33VO, MMartin Photography, Numinosity (Gary J Wood), Coco Mault, dying regime, DonkeyHotey, LoFish23, Aero Icarus, Bob Jagendorf, Matt @ PEK, travel.executive