Trips That Make a Fashion Statement: Three Cities for the Clothes-Minded
One balmy day in London last spring, I wandered out of Hyde Park down Exhibition Road and ended up at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where I joined the crowd flowing through a temporary exhibit called “The Cutting Edge.” It documented 50 years of British fashion from 1947 to 1997, with dresses, gowns, suits and accessories created by the best English designers--from Norman Hartnell’s 1938 state gown for Queen Elizabeth II to a shockingly short black crepe number made by Mary Quant in the ‘60s.
Too poor to afford a Givenchy, Vivienne Westwood or Dior, I’d never followed high fashion before. But the exhibit got me interested--not in shopping exactly, but in the ethos and history of haute couture. So, with the help of Pam Sexton, owner and director of Fashion Perspectives Tours in Richmond, Va., telephone (804) 649-0562, I started collecting information on where a traveler could go to learn more about the great fashion designers and their beautiful clothes.
Of course, you could make it easy on yourself by signing up for one of Sexton’s reasonably priced tours. She goes to London March 6-13 and Paris March 27-April 3, gaining admission to back rooms at couturier shops and museums that are off-limits to the public. But here are a few ideas for those who want to tour on their own:
London
First, call the British Tourist Authority in New York, tel. (212) 986-2266, for a free copy of the new magazine British by Design. Then make a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road in Knightsbridge, tel. 011-44- 171-938-8500, where the collection includes the 5-inch platform heels designed by Vivienne Westwood that made supermodel Naomi Campbell take a tumble on the runway during a fashion show.
Sloane and Bond streets are the city’s traditional haute couture haunts, with Kensington popular among teens, and shops like The Cross in Holland Park, tel. 011-44- 171-727-6760, and Egg in Knightsbridge, tel. 011-44-171-235-9315, catering to the quietly chic.
But for those who recall the way Mary Quant made news in the ‘60s by shaving her pubic hair and creating mod clothes for “dukes’ and dockers’ daughters,” a visit to her shop at 3 St. Ives St. in South Kensington, tel. 011-44-171-581-1811, is in order. The punk look made the next big splash, centered at the Vivienne Westwood shop, World’s End, 430 King’s Road, tel. 011-44- 171-352-6551. The shop was called Sex in the days when the designer was hanging out with Sex Pistols bandleader Malcolm MacLaren.
New York
When I think of style-setters, I think of Jackie, dubbed “Her Elegance” by Women’s Wear Daily in 1961, and walk past her old apartment at 1040 Fifth Ave., hoping to see her ghost. Or I do as Audrey Hepburn did in the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” fantasizing in front of the jeweler’s flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Givenchy dressed Hepburn back in those days. But if Hepburn went shopping now, I bet you’d find her on the eastern fringe of SoHo, where all the young designers congregate, like the shoemaker Sigerson-Morrison, 242 Mott St., tel. (212) 219-3893.
The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, tel. (212) 535-7710, has more than 60,000 garments and accessories from five continents and four centuries. Its current special exhibition, “Cubism and Fashion” (on display through March 14), studies the way the art movement started by Picasso and Braque influenced the work of designers like Madeleine Vionnet and Coco Chanel.
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, tel. (212) 217-7642, is also an extremely strong collection, with apparel and textiles from the last three centuries. FIT has rotating exhibits as well, such as the one on display through Jan. 9, devoted to the American designer Claire McCardell, known for her innovations in sportswear.
Staley-Wise Gallery, 560 Broadway in SoHo, tel. (212) 966-6223, has made a niche for itself representing and showing fashion photography and portraits by Cecil Beaton, Horst, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Edward Steichen and others. A show on Ellen von Unwerth runs from March 4 to April 3.
Paris
Paris is ground zero for fashion, with all the best shops, and shows held twice a year by both haute couture and ready-to-wear designers. You’d need some pretty good connections to get an invitation to one of these traffic-stopping affairs, but there are alternatives for mere mortals, like the fashion shows at the department store Galeries Lafayette, 7th floor, 40 Boulevard Haussmann, held on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Fridays at 2:30 p.m., April 1 to Oct. 31 (admission free, reservations required, tel. 011-33-1-42-82-85-62, Internet https://www.galerieslafayette.com).
Designer shops are centered on the Rue du Faubourg St. Honore and the Avenue Montaigne, and more recently on the Left Bank near the Cafe Les Deux Magots and Cafe Flore in St. Germain des Pres.
Sexton’s favorite designer resale shop is Reciproque, 89-123 Rue de la Pompe, tel. 011-33-1-47-04-30-28, though she’s also snagged gorgeous designer christening gowns at the Porte de Clignancourt flea market (open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday only).
The Louvre’s Musee de la Mode et du Textile, 107 Rue de Rivoli, tel. 011-33-1-44-55-57-50, and the Musee de la Mode et du Costume at the Palais Galliera, 10 Ave. Pierre Premier de Serbie, tel. 011-33-1- 47-20-85-23, are the City of Light’s principal costume institutes. Lesser-known apparel museums are at Hermes, 24 Rue du Faubourg St. Honore, by appointment only, tel. 011-33-1-40-17-47-17, and a collection of fans as fashion accessories at the Atelier Hoguet, Musee de l’Eventail, 2 Blvd. de Strasbourg, tel. 011-33-1-42-08- 19-89. For more tips from a true Paris insider, consult the newsletter Paris Notes, P.O. Box 15818, North Hollywood, CA 91615, tel. (800) 677-9660.
