Museum Hopper

i visited the metropolitan museum of art this weekend to look at the new special exhibit, the model as muse: embodying fashion . it was pretty fantastic. i went to the exhibit since i read about it in this new york times' review . the exhibit is in the space that the turner exhibit was in about 8 months ago. the exhibit was laid out in a chronological order. it started with the 1950s and ended with the present/future of modeling. this layout made sense given that the exhibit walks the viewer through the evolution of the female figure. the exhibit was an interesting mix of commentary, magazine covers, photos, couture and video. as i walked through the exhibit, the commentary was excellent at bringing cohesion to which models' lifestyles influences what fashions and styles. it also drew lines between the ideal feminine silhouette and the models influences that ideal. the exhibit was quite crowded, but seemed to handle the crowd well. i could still see and read eve...

i went to the tower of london again on this trip to london . i absolutely love it. this trip, i did most of the beefeater tour and then went to the new exhibit, henry viii: dressed to kill . i skipped the crown jewels since i didn't have lots of time and there was a line queuing out of the tower to see them. the yeomen warder (aka a beefeater) tour is included in the price of admission to the tour. they begin about every 1/2 hour or so and are the reason i keep coming back to the tower every time i am in london . if you miss the start of a tour, either wait for the next one/come back to it or catch up to the one ahead of you. they talk about the "ins and outs" of the tower as well as lore and stories about its occupants. they are quite comical. the tour might not be suited to young children since most of the stories involve someone being beheaded! this time, i went to the new exhibit about king henry viii . remember, when i complained about how king hen...

i visited kensington palace this trip with a friend from work, jo . it is the second time i have been to the tour. the first time was about 7 years ago when i visited london with my aunt. i got to by walking through the gardens which were lovely. the main reason for the "above average" (not outstanding) score is that the exhibits were all over the place. since this is a historic home, they can't exactly rip down doors and walls to create a more cohesive exhibit. that being said though, i felt like this was particularly bad. we had to repeat major parts of the exhibit to move on to the next part and lots of backtracking. the first 5-7 rooms were about dressing for court . the first two showed styles from the early 1920s (some earlier) and the work it took to get ready for an event at court. the palace provided headsets to elaborate and provide more background on what we were looking at. these were helpful although i do prefer to read placards (since that c...

i visited the victoria and albert museum (finally) by myself. the last time i was in london, i didn't have much time to visit it, but i stepped into it briefly. i promised myself that next time i was in london, i would go visit this museum. i am not sure how i skipped it the first two trips. i think v & a + london's national gallery = the new york metropolitan museum of art from what i could tell unless i missed the just "pure" artwork. my goal was to visit the highlights of the museum that were on the first floor, which were most of the list. it really seems like this museum had everything. i particularly liked the india, china and japan exhibits. they seemed to have some very rare and beautiful pieces. i wish i had had a little more time to explore it more. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 hr overall: A-