I went to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum for the first time to see this show of vintage couture gowns from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. I love the V&A and I go there every time I visit London. It is an amazing Design Museum, the best I have ever encountered. So I was quite excited to see this traveling show.
The Heritage Museum, for anyone who has not been there, is a massive building. The design of the interior rooms of the museum is quite intricate and I found myself entranced with the building itself.
Before I went into the Couture exhibit, I explored some of the rest of the museum. There was an fantastic exhibit of Chinese ceramics and bronzes upstairs, as well as a colorful part on Tibetan treasures. I enjoyed wandering around looking at all of the beautiful designs almost as much as I enjoyed looking at the dresses.
Downstairs, I went into the couture exhibit backwards, as I often do at galleries and museums. I like to look at things from a different angle. I saw the cocktail and evening gowns in the first room I walked into.
This red ensemble by Christian Dior is even more fantastic in person.Many of the gowns in the evening-wear room can actually take your breath away. While walking around in the darked room, it is easy to loose yourself in a fantasy of days gone by and a salon full of beautiful women sashaying about in these stunning pieces of wearable art.
The larger room of the collection houses the introduction to the exhibit as well as day-wear, a look at one patron's collection, an explanation of the London vs. Paris scene, and much more. The show also has videos of modeling shoots and fashion shows from the time. They truly demonstrate how the world of modeling has changed drastically since the 1950's. Watching the multimedia shows also lends to the sense of going back in time that I certainly experienced while I was looking at all of the amazing vintage pieces.
After viewing this show, the saying comes back to me, "They (really) don't make things like they used to."
The Golden Age of Couture closes on Monday so this weekend is your last chance to see the show before they pack it back into it's steamer trunks and ship it to the next location.
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