Fashion Exhibits Paris, NYC & London - Museum Roundup

Haute Couture week in Paris has just ended. The garmento glitterati are now bracing for upcoming NY Fashion Week and London Fashion week the storms to come. I invite those of you who are not attending the shows (or have lost too much sleep preparing for them) to take a break and get some inspiration from fashion’s cultural greats. (Remember those days when you weren't burnt out and had some creative drive?)


In Paris, check out the Mme Vionnet exhibit and the upcoming tribute to Animal print and motifs at Les Arts Decoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts). Also in the City of Lights, pay homage to the great Yves St. Laurent at the Petit Palais.



In New York, admire "American Beauty" at the Museum at FIT. This exhibit explores the "philosophy of beauty" and how it applies to the craft of dressmaking by American fashion designers. Also at the museum, check out "Scandals, Sandals & Lady Slippers" for all the foot fetishists out there. Over at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the work of the Mulleavy sisters is on display in a retrospective of the Rodarte Label.



In London, look for Grace Kelly: Style Icon at the Victoria and Albert Museum. After admiring the past, look ahead to Future Fashion Now, an exhibit of the graduating designers of the Royal College of Art. At the Fashion and Textile Museum, relive London's cultural revolution with the Foale & Tuffin: Made in England exhibit.

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Fashion Designers For Haiti

The Council of Fashion Designers of America and its members have come together to produce a t-shirt campaign that benefit the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

“The tragedy in Haiti has affected everyone and most of us individually have given money for relief,” said Diane von Furstenberg, president of the CFDA. “However, I think it is now important to send a message and create a channel for funding from fashion as an industry.”

The Peter Arnell-designed tee features a black and lime green logo with the tag line “Hope Help Heal Haiti”, and will be sold at retailers nationwide as well as online starting February 12.

Fashion Delivers is a charitable organization that distributes excess clothing to needy individuals and families all around the globe. Its board of directors include the likes of Russell Simmons and Sean “P Diddy” Combs. The group issued a call to designers, retailers and anyone else to donate items that the people of Haiti can use. To give or obtain more information, go to www.fashiondelivers.org

Individual designers have also created their own charitable projects. Ralph Lauren has created a Haiti Relief Polo collection sold online. Kooba is donating 15% of its online sales to Doctors Without Borders. Independent boutiques like Bird are also donating a percentage of sales to their charities of choice.

Trends may come and go, but generosity and humanity never go out of style.

You can always donate directly to organizations themselves.

Click here for a list of charities helping Haiti.

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