Today we visited the Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens to see the current exhibit of
Pret-A-Papier...an exhibit of stunning 18th, 19th and 20th century gowns and accessories made of paper! (At this link you can see information on the artist creating these realistic looking paper gowns.) Although I took nearly 200 pictures to aid my own study of historic costuming and art appreciation, I am not permitted to showcase any of them here. However I did find
Hillwood's pinterest page of the exhibit.
As we entered the Visitor Center, many paper kimonos were seen hanging from the ceiling. A great perspective of looking up at the kimonos is near the tall Christmas tree which is decorated with smaller paper kimonos. There is a picture of this on their facebook wall.
Then we went to the Adirondack Building which currently houses nothing but these lovely paper gowns. As we entered the huge double doors, we were greeted by a stunning display of the pièce de résistance, heralding the fashion trender of Paris herself, Empress Josephine Bonaparte's coronation gown. Inspired, I photographed the gown and long train from every angle, as I did all the others to come. We had audio sets and headphones for the private tours and the artist highly recommended we do just that, view the gowns from each angle. Stunning. Amazing. Breathtaking.
And I might add that in the audio, the narrator described that Josephine's "regal bearing and sympathetic personality won her the enduring love and admiration of her subjects." That agrees with what I read in the Cronin book,
Napoleon Bonaparte. I didn't used to like Josephine until I read this book, based on primary sources. Now I like Josephine quite a bit!
Then there was the "big hip gown" as my daughter called it from the early 18th century. Most would recognize it as the early 18th century British court gown...with the 5 feet hips!
One that I recognized immediately was based on the 1791 "Self-portrait with a Harp." The paper lace was realistically sheer.
My daughter's favorite was one that reminded her of the Lady Dunmore gown from Colonial Williamsburg. We went to a special program a few years ago where the Costume Design Center directors talked about how they had the original fabric replicated to dress Mamie Gummer to portray Lady Dunmore. The paper gown we saw had some of the same colors and designs in it.
Then there was the frilly green Madame de Pompadour gown with pink bows and roses galore, made famous from the Francois Boucher painting. (sigh) Set next to this was an antique table from the museum collection, replicating the one in the Boucher painting. The little extra scene styling gave me the feeling that I was in her bourdoir, with a paper workbag (18th century version of a purse) hanging from the table. Paper roses were scattered nearby on the floor.
Next to that was another favorite, the Marie Antoinette pink gown of rustling poofy silk, made of paper. Next to this was an antique dog bed with canopy, from the estate's collection. This was an especially easy gown to take many angle shots and even the opportunity to photograph of the sea of gowns in various pastels, in that corner of the room.
These were my favorites from the entire collection, all in one spot. Yet next to these were three Fortuny gowns, all inspired by ancient Greek gowns. Of the three, the light aquas was my favorite and one I'd like to attempt to replicate. It has a lovely sheer aqua overlay (made out of paper) over the infamous Fortuny crinckled fabric (a Fortuny designer secret that was never revealed and has never been discovered) for the base gown, this time replicated in paper. I already own a similar base fabric, synthetically crinkled but easy since I don't know the trade secret.
Most of these gowns were on special platforms that allowed for underlighting to shine under and through the gown, creating a lifelike effect. I had fun capturing this on the camera.
Then we went to the mansion, which is the most elaborate mansion I have ever entered. More than a home for Marjorie Post, who inherited the famed cereal company, it became a museum of her growing collections from travel and work abroad. First she fell in love with all things French...which later developed into a fascination with Russian history...all because of living in these countries while her husband did diplomatic type work. The blend of the two within the walls of this beautiful home makes for a warm and intimate museum experience. I do not feel as though I am in the typical modern museum, but I feel like I'm visiting someone's house, which I am. Each room of the house showcases her multitudinous collections, which we first saw last May when we went to visit the Napoleon exhibit. The basic French and Russian items remain on display throughout the year, but with some changing out seasonally. For example the dining room and breakfast nook change out their place settings and tablescape according to the seasonal theme. In May the theme was military influence in honor of Napoleon to the Christmas tablescape we saw today. Also in Marjorie Post's dressing room are a couple of her personal gowns from the early 19th century on display. Last summer I got to see some lovely 1920's styles, and I'm not a fan of the 1920's but these were lovely. This time one was a beautiful 1907 gown and the other was a paper gown from the same collection.
Throughout the mansion's usual displays was the sprinkle of paper gowns. In the mansion's mid19th century media/entertainment room (think lavender velvet seats with balcony and iron railing with scrollwork) were 2 paper gowns. One was especially commissioned for the permament Hillwood Mansion collection. This was a lovely 1830's blue gown with white lace and prodigious leg o'mutton sleeves that is showcased in front of the museum's huge painting in the same room. "Tossed" onto a nearby chair was an intricately woven paper blanket with lush paper fringe.
On the opposite wall was a painting of a Russian wedding from which the artist replicated the bridesmaid's garment full of rich texture.
In the French room, was a pair of paper fashions from the late 18th century in the southern French style, inspired by the tapestry behind the display. A lady's jacket and petticoat and the gentleman's frock coat/waistcoat/breeches were in bright yellows, reds, oranges and greens of the region. My son, who often wears 18th century garments to Colonial Williamsburg, was glad to see a 3D paper garment for a man.
In the dining room was a Scottish take on an English-back gown, in reds, warmly harmonizing with the reds of the English hunting themed room.
Upstairs, in the casual library, was a vibrant 1780's jacket and petticoat with matching shoes nearby on the floor and hat on a nearby chair, all made from paper.
In the guest bathroom dressing area, was a man's banyan (18th century dressing robe) with a bit more Japanese influence than historicallhy accurate, because the artist purposed to be extremely creative on this one. She explains why in the audio tour. Showcased next to that was a bust of Peter the Great, because this was her homage of the Russian ruler.
In Marjorie Post's dressing room bay window was showcased a cream on cream 18th century jacket and petticoat combination.
In her bedroom was a lovely white on white gauzy layered confection of an equisite gown from the 1860's, such as Napoleon III's wife would have worn, more specifically a Worth gown. It was fun in that we began and ended our tour of paper gowns on Napoleonic notes, with gowns represntative of Empresses of France. I think it also goes with my latest blog theme, of Napoleon's positive influence on the world, for which homage continues to be paid today. There is no getting away from Napoleon. He's everywhere.
Even though we had visited the mansion last May, I had inadvertently missed the permament collection of Faberge eggs and the stunning jeweled crown of Russian Empress Alexandra. This time I focused on them. Two of my favorites were in the center room showcase which was designed by Faberge. There was a stunning azure blue and diamond encrusted egg that Czar Nicholas gave to his mother, the first one he commissioned and gifted. Hence a tradition began of gifting his mother and wife Faberge eggs. Rescued from the rubble of the Bolshevik Revolution, the surprise that used to be inside the stunning blue egg is now gone. Underneath that in the display case was a pink egg that represented Catherine the Great. Next to that was a pink music box that was made by Faberge. As I listened to the explanation on the audio tour, I got to hear the music box music for background, as I learned of the artistic techniques Faberge used for this lovely piece. This museum is a great place not only for admirers of history and art, but also for students of art history and of art technique.
When we returned to the Visitor Center, I noticed the hands-on section, where we could touch the type of paper the artist used to create her gowns. There was a flat screen television playing a video of her painting her papers to become gowns. There was a display that explained step-by-step how she used her choice of paper to create the colors and luminosity and various effects. Somehow she can even make the paper transparent to use as gauze, or to use as lace. Very realistic. Then there was a dress form that had the painted papers in the beginning stages of being artfully arranged to become a gown. Throughout the exhibit we learned bits and pieces of how she painted, used metallic threads in the paint (like the original court gowns themselves), crunched, pleated, folded, etc, of the papers to design historic gowns. Even though she is the typical artist who prefers to employ her own creative interpretations, I was quite amazed at how spot-on many of the gowns were in their various designs. In short the artist uses a technique called
trompe 'oeil, which means to "fool the eye." Indeed these gowns and accessories did fool the eye, especially when viewed from afar. Up close it was obvious that the gowns were made of paper, but sometimes you had to look twice due to excellent effect.