Say, you don't make anything that goes with flip-flops, do you?

And if you were amongst the ladies of stratospheric means, you would want Arnold Scaasi to come up with it.

This old thing? Really darling, you're too too much of a flatterer...

Mr. Scaasi has spent the last 55 years (retired now, alas) making some of the most technically dazzling, stunningly luxurious outfits ever worn by women of wealth, and more than 100 of those outfits have been donated to the MFA. The Scaasi: American Couturier exhibit showcases 28 of these, worn by just four of his clients, and all I can say is, what clients! what clothes!

Honestly, who matches coat linings with dresses anymore?

Scaasi (which is Issacs—his actual last name—spelled backwards) was successful from the get-go, and his oeuvre was custom designed/made items that required 65 separate measurements to get them right.

Oh yes, we're sisters. The Scaasi sisters.

His clients loved him and how he made them look, and many became friends. And with friends like actress Arlene Francis, nightclub owner’s wife Joetta  Norban, super-uber rich Gayfryd Steinberg, and Barbara Streisand, could you possibly have enemies?

Babs, you so deserved that Oscar! And your tushie looked very cute in this.

I have named his style splash-wear, as in “Wow, you would have to splash out a lot of money for that dress.”

Cost of material: over $1,300 per yard. Amount of material: yards and yards.

The 28 pieces in this exhibit are sumptuous and event-specific. These are not things you would don to pop into the market for milk, baloney, and peanut butter. These are things that announce, “I am here. And I am here.”

That Scaasi's a genius--half of my dress is made out of plastic!

The wonderful thing about this exhibit is how close you can get to the clothes. You can get this close:

Not a stitch out of place.

But you can also stand back and get a frisson of the breadth and detail produced by Scaasi.

Oh, is that the caviar?

The clothing in this exhibit are examples of fine workmanship and attention to detail. Each and every piece is beautifully designed, the fabrics expertly chosen and pared, and the sewing top-notch.

All this beading is lovely, but the dress weighs about 22 pounds.

Even if you aren’t the daughter of a self-taught seamstress—a seamstress who once hand-sewed seventeen yards of lace to her god-daughter’s wedding dress—the Scaasi exhibit at the MFA will knock your socks off.

As usual, the curators at the MFA have done a fabulous job of creating a cohesive, approachable exhibit. It’s like walking into a live Vogue photo spread.

Scaasi: American Couturier

Saturday, September 25, 2010 – Sunday, June 19, 2011

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Avenue of the Arts
Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5523
617-267-9300
TTY: 617-267-9703

Photography courtesy of Wan Chi Lau

No, it's not a piece of paper stuck over her head, it's FASHION.

Put your best dress on, Martha, because you are going to want to go.

Wait, I'm almost ready!

Dorian Leigh, hat by Paulette, Paris studio, August 1949
Photograph Richard Avedon
© The Richard Avedon Foundation

Having grown up when I grew up (meaning that when I was in high school you were not properly attired until you had applied four shades of eye shadow and three shades of eye liner, wore sequins and tottered about in stilettos—yes, to first period Chemistry), what you wore defined who you were. Or rather, what you wore described who you hoped others would think you were.

And that’s what what we wear is about, isn’t it? Who you are, who you want to be thought of as, who you aspire to become. I still have evening gowns in my closet that I don on occasion (meaning, it’s Saturday morning and I’m the only one in the house), just to make sure I could still be “that” person if I need to/want to.

Mr. Avedon defined the look of fashion advertising, the look that people wanted to have for themselves. His photography gave movement and energy and joy, even, to clothing ads.

Wouldn't I look lovely in those…

Prior to his arrival (at the age of 21 with the sale of one photograph to Bonwit Teller’s for $7.50) photography of clothing was very practical, mostly in the form of studio-based front/back/side static poses.

Avedon took his models outside, in real surroundings (or made-to-look-real surroundings). The models were photographed twirling, primping, laughing. Good lord, these models could be actual people, doing actual people things! Caused quite a stir.

The fashionable way to jump a puddle

Avedon came to fashion photography just after the war. Harper’s Bazaar sent him to Paris to do some editorial fashion shots. Paris after the war was bombed out, and its people worn out. So much destruction to such a beautiful city, its culture and fashion dampened by four-and-a-half years of Nazi occupation, with shortages of everything from shoes to tires to milk.

Avedon’s images were images of hope, images that expressed the idea that women could once again look lovely and that Paris could once again be “The City of Lights.”

Twirling is not just for little girls…

And that was Avedon’s thing, as it were; expressing the idea that women were beautiful and loved wearing fashion. He captured how women enjoyed wearing clothes, as expressed in this image:

Enchenté, darling

Avedon worked continuously, and anticipated and embraced the changing ideas in the fashion world, from the opulent ‘50’s:

I get pouty when there's no champagne

To the “Youth Quake” of the ‘60’s:

Nothing like a fashion shoot with no clothes in it…

After long stints with Harper’s and Vogue, Avedon moved into more portraiture and advertising work. This exhibit, however, focuses exclusively on his fashion portfolio, and it’s a pleasure to meander through it, stopping at images that, well, make you stop. It’s almost hard to remember that fashion photography was his job, and he got paid to show off the clothes. His images make you want to be that person, not just wear what she’s wearing.

The quality of the images is stunning, but the exhibit doesn’t shy away from showing you the backroom, as it were.

Ya cut it here, ya slice it here, and we've got ourselves a good picture…

The design of the exhibition is very enjoyable. I highly suggest reading the wall text to garner a sense of the work and the time.

Darling, it's not paper, it's FASHION.

Okay, it might be paper. But just a little bit.

He was on assignment for The New Yorker when he died, doing what he loved doing right up to the end.

Thanks, man.

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 is a traveling exhibit, organized by the International Center of Photography (ICP) with the cooperation of The Richard Avedon Foundation. It is at the MFA until January 17, 2011, and is free with admission to the museum.

These Egyptians might not’ve had a 401(k), but they were very very confident that their version of “retirement” would be a glorious one.

Talk about a transformational experience!

It’s all about the shtuff

Let’s say you were living in Egypt about 4,000 years ago, and were one of that culture’s Masters of the Universe.

You got the bling, baby, and lots of it; you got many many many people working for you, making your life (but not theirs) really comfortable; you want for not one single thing.

And then, in spite of all the wishing and, thinging, to the contrary, you and your lovely wife die.

How do you let the, um, folks of the nether world know who you are and where to put you, as it were, once you get to your post-mortem place?

Are we there yet?

(All images courtesy of Wan Chi Lau)

You bring examples of your here-and-now to the here-after, that’s what you do.

You bring examples of your large life-ness to show that you can take your place at the table of the gods.

It’s not enough to be called Djehutynakht (Jeh-HOO-dee-nacht) — the “other” name for Thoth —  you gots to got the godly goods, like a flotilla of boats to match the boat that the sun god Ra uses to cross the sky every day. Dinghies just won’t cut it, dude.

This IS the Nile, right?

Of course, the boats are models, but which is more impressive, one big boat or SIXTY models, each easily over a foot in length, with upwards of a dozen hand-made figures on them?

You go for the quantity, natch.

Each boat and each figure is hand-made, and each arm goes on only one figure and each figure goes in only one place on only one boat.

That’s a lot of workers working to secure your place in heaven (or wherever).

We could go a lot faster if we just had some oars...

Darling, you look marvelous

Of course, you would want to re-inhabit your body once you make the move, but if some ancient grave robbers robbed your grave of not only your jewelry but of your body, can you still get revived post-repose?

We cannot say what golden goodies those f*ckers may have taken, but they left a head atop one of the coffins.

At the mo’ nobody knows if the ‘huty Head is his or hers, but the CSI-ers in New York are working on that.

I have a headache like you wouldn't believe!

Like any good AE (Ancient Egyptian), you had your lungs, stomach, and intestines removed and stored in the special “guts jar” to have re-put-in; however, the brain and the heart apparently were not considered necessities in the after-life and were not saved.

Your Window to the Nether World

In order to be stylin’ you need to deck out your vehicle, which in your 4,000 year old case is your coffin.

Inside and out, your coffin’s coffin’s coffin (yes, you have three) is designed and painted to the max.

Are we there yet?

You would also want a gazillion hand-carved inscriptions written in hieroglyphics describing what you will and will not do (“I will not eat feces,” I swear to Horus), how much stuff you’ve brought and how to re-establish/animate yourself (it’s either “You put the lime in the coconut” or “The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,” I forget which).

I think he spelled that wrong...

And now, a word from our sponsor

So how cool is this, your coffin is the finest, the very finest, of its type in the whole wide world. Today, I mean. Your coffin is THE Middle Kingdom coffin, anywhere. And it’s the MFA’s, and has been since Harvard/MFA excavated it in 1915.

The coolness of the exhibition is that everything in it, from the teeny-tiny mirror in the priest’s hand to the linen-wrapped mummy head comes from one single collection, the MFA’s, and finally, after 10,000 (ten thousand) hours of painstaking reconstruction and conservation (you wouldn’t believe the mess the grave robbers left), the MFA is justifiably proud of this exhibition.

The exhibition space is beautifully presented, and I highly recommend reading the fabulous explanations on the walls: you will miss the amazingness of what’s in it if you don’t (because this is a much more nuanced presentation of ye olde Egyptionality than say, Tut’s ever was).

Oh, so THAT's what it means!

The MFA has two audio tours, one designed especially for kids. The interactive website is great, and there’s lots of things to buy at the MFA shop. The museum is even including Middle Eastern fare to its menus at Bravo and Galleria Cafe. Falafel for everyone!

The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC

Now through May 16, 2010 in the Gund Gallery.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Admission prices include this exhibition and the MFA collections, plus a repeat visit within ten days.

RainyDayMagazine has a great review of the exhibition, which you can read here.