SHOWS OF THE WEEK

hey ladies...

Look we're not going to pretend we've actually seen any exhibitions for the last couple of weeks, we've been too busy playing house and hangin' out... after all we're on our summer holidays people! That being said today is officially the day we go back to work. Sigh. Still it also means that we're starting to get it together again to make it out of the back-yard (or botanical gardens in Ramona's case) and into the galleries. Of course with the impetus on new years resolutions and their resultant make-overs we've been thinking about how to oufit the new decade ... and what better way to get to where we're going than to look at where we've been. So. This weeks shows are all about FASHION.

Over at the NGV international theres DRAPED, an exhibition drawn predominantly from the NGV collection, in which fashion, sculpture, painting, decorative arts and photography from antiquity to the present day explore the practice of draping cloth on the body in two modes - clinging drape and elevated drape. While the gallery defines 'Clinging drape' as being reliant on a direct interaction between the body and cloth, we see it as being reliant on super hot bods and buns of steel and therefore not on the current hml wardrobe menu. "Elevated drape"  however is defined as "showing drape theatrically animated away from the body as in the festooning of fabric over crinolines and bustles..." in other words a gloriously dramatic way for all women who have had children and/or who no longer have either hot bods or buns of steel to hide the not so fabulous bits while celebrating the rest. Just one reasonwhy we love the designers like Rei Kawakubo and her lbd outfit above.This exhibition also features works by some of our other personal faves here at hml - Vivienne Westwood, Gianni Versace, Christian Dior, Balenciaga and Hussein Chalayan. Tops.

Until 27 June 2010

Fashion & Textiles Gallery, Level 2

Free

Closer to home and more recent in focus is the TOGETHER ALONE exhibition over at the other NGV

(Ian Potter) this exhibition mulls over the common ground shared by our trans tasman affair with New Zealand and expresses the antipodean aesthetic through a group of what we shall now refer to as "the usual suspects" Akira Isogawa, Toni Maticevski, MaterialByProduct, Romance Was Born, Doris de Pont, World, Nom*D and Zambesi. Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt so it's nice to see all this stuff together in a gallery setting to remind you that this stuff, made locally is actually pretty damn good - and for the most part, unlike the stable of stars in the Draped exhibition, still within reach. Well ok, maybe not for us any longer, but those of you not actually trying to make a living from craft or publicly funded little arts organisations or without small people eating through your personal expenditure budgets might still be able to afford it.

Until 18 April 2010

Fashion & Textiles Gallery 12, Level 2
Free entry