High Fashion At The Museum

Here are the pictures I took from the Christian Lacroix exhibition at the Singapore National Museum. Amazingly, when I went on the very last day of this particular exhibition, it was FREE ENTRY... hooray! I guess they really wanted as many people as possible to catch this show before it gets packed up...

Anyways, if you see a kind of black netting in front of the pictures, please do not adjust your screen because the museum did put up fine black netting in front of the costumes to protect them from curious onlookers I guess... Also, the lighting was pretty dark so if you can't see as much detail as you want, well, next time... go to catch this type of exhibit in person...

Most of the gowns and costumes are for film, theatre and opera, therefore they appear exaggerated. However, I am pretty sure that SOME of the outfits at least are true to historical record :P I'll let you know which ones when you come to them.

The following picture shows gowns that I think are pretty close to the ones worn by women from the 1800s on till the early 20th century.

The following outfits are from the opera Carmen.








The following outfits are for the Greek tragedy "Phedre". Apparently they were designed beautifully because the actors had to be on stage for the entire play, even if they were standing in the background. In terms of richness of the fabric and complexity of the costumes, they sort of remind me of Francis Ford Coppela's "Dracula" where he spent most of his budget on fabulous costumes for the actors. Unfortunately, all he got for that movie was a very memorable soundtrack, a song by Annie Lennox and an Oscar for best costume design. :P The movie itself was ... Ok-ay... but not as fabulous as the costumes that were in it.

For the guys who watched that very very LONG play which was featured in the semi-finals with The Shark's "Vampire Monologues"... "Phedre" was the Greek tragedy that the uber long romance was based on.


For some reason, when I saw the following gown with the hooded cape, it reminded me of what Marie de Medici wore in 1622 to a christening. Marie's dress was studded with 3000 diamonds and 39 000 pearls. Today that same dress is valued at around USD 9.75 million or SGD 14.2 million, and for the longest time, was the most expensive dress ever made, although... I think I have read a higher valuation figure in some other historical sources.




According to one of the museum guides, the actress who wore this burgundy gown loved it so much, she had Christian Lacroix make her an exact replica for her wedding. Apparently, her husband-to-be first saw her in this dress at the play and was so taken in by her appearance on stage that it became a case of "love at first sight"... I never knew a dress could be so pivotal in finding a lifetime of happiness... oh well... if only stories like that are true today.

I was particularly impressed by the men's outfits in this particular collection. I don't think I have ever seen anything quite so beautiful.




The following are some additional exhibits that were featured in some old time movie musicals.





Amazingly in the following picture, this shape of gown was actually worn by women... possibly in the late baroque or rococo period. I have seen similar examples when I was travelling around in Europe some years ago. The ladies get through doors by going in sideways and yeah, once one of those ladies sit on a couch, I don't think you can actually sit beside her. It sort of makes me wonder how gentlemen of that era dated.

Some more costumes from the movies.


The following gown is absolutely beautiful, I tend to think of it as the Tinkerbell gown. However, I think the lady wearing this gown should be on the skinny side. The high waist and cut of the outfit does tend to put a few pounds on the wearer.




And that's it folks. There were a lot of other pieces in this exhibit, but I think these were probably the most outstanding of the lot. It was certainly something worth going to.

A Night At The Museum

A week ago on a Sunday, Wolfy and I decided to go to the National Museum because it was apparently "International Museum Day" and entry to all museums in Singapore was free and because I had been there recently, and was not able to take the pictures I wanted because my camera battery ran out. I don't usually go to museums in Singapore because there really isn't anything I want to see here and most of my friends aren't the museum-going sort.

Well, because we had a late night outing the day before, I guess when I met up with the guys, we were all feeling a little bit tired. We had a nice lunch and then decided to go to the museum. I suggested taking the bus, but Bob suggested walking since we were pretty nearby in Orchard. Upon hindsight, taking the bus would have been a much better idea. Because there are so many things that would waylay the guys en route to where we were going.

In particular, Bob discovered a really plush sitting area with red cushions in the shopping area that came up opposite the road from Centrepoint. We really shouldn't have gone in, but I thought at that time, why not? That was a huge mistake, because the moment we sat down on those plush seats, Wolfy fell asleep. Since he was sleeping so soundly, we decided to let him sleep a little since he had a late night.

We woke him up at about 5ish so we could still get to the museum. I had thought that apart from the history section, the rest of the gallery would be open till 8 at least.

Well, we got to the museum finally at about 10 mins to 6. And guess what... when I got to the gallery I wanted to see, I saw the museum people closing the doors in my face :P Apparently, the nice exhibits close at 6pm on the dot... Why that is so, I cannot understand. I would have thought the museum would get MORE traffic if it opened up later into the night. At least until 8. I think museums around the world really should consider extending their opening hours, or start admissions late and stay open later. With the trend towards nightlife, it might be a good idea to do so.

Since we were there already and not wanting to waste that free entry day, we decided to take a look around. We browse the Living Galleries, which was not really a bad idea since they had pretty interesting displays of everyday life in Singapore in the past. The Living Galleries covered everything from clothing and cosmetics to Film and Food.

I must say I was pretty impressed by the way the displays were done. They were pretty innovative. The Food gallery was quite a sight with really great displays of spices in jars. The only thing I found disconcerting about it was the fact that, at one point where I was focused on the process of capturing photos of the exhibits, Wolfy tapped on my shoulder and pointed out to me that we were ALL ALONE in the gallery.

The Food Gallery in particular had this true-to-life ambient sound recording playing in the background that mimicked the sound of people moving around and the banging of cooking pots. Being engrossed as I was with the exhibits, I didn't notice that all the people who came in with us had already left. :P

It was a little creepy but we sort of laughed it off ... its pretty silly to get frightened by a bit of human ingenuity.

Well, that set the stage for the really creepy thing that happened next.

Trying... in typical Singaporean fashion, to maximise our free entry into the museum, we looked around for a gallery we hadn't been to yet. I spotted a doorway in the circular walkway on the second floor of the entry area of the museum. It seemed pretty empty since it was already evening and the sun had set and the doorway to the gallery was not in a prominant area.

Even from the outside it looked pretty creepy through the glass doors because the colour scheme of the room was black or dark, offset by whitish, classic wall cornices. What made it worse was the huge black and white photos from the 1800s to early 1900s. It was like looking at Time itself being frozen... and not in a good way.

I was about to give this gallery a skip, but the Singaporean in me drove me to try and "maximise" our freebie. I went in and started taking pictures of the silver jewellery. I remember in particular I was trying to take a close-up of a rather unique looking silver tasbir when I was interrupted by a noise from my left. Shifting my eyeballs slightly, I caught sight of two pairs of feet in what looked like canvas shoes or sneakers of a couple walking out. I got the impression that the guy pushed the glass door and got out first, followed by a lady. Thinking nothing of it, I snapped away until Wolfy tapped me on the shoulder again.

"Did you see that guy, he was talking to nothing..." there was a strange look on his face. I wasn't too sure what he was saying until he repeated his statement again and explained himself. Apparently this young teenage fellow with a backpack and sneakers turned, smiled and made a noise or comment (something like "wow") to the empty air beside him. The expression on the young man's face was that of a guy trying to impress his gal.

I guess Wolfy was trying to get me to confirm that he had indeed seen a flesh and blood person... since he does sometimes see "people" who aren't there.

Since I had heard the sound, I was able to confirm at least that he had indeed seen someone. However, I said that there were two people, not just one. He however, only saw the guy. Well, since this was uber weird, Wolfy pushed open the glass door to try and find that strange teenage guy. Unfortunately, there was no one outside when we looked out. Wolfy was certain that this same strange young man was sitting alone on one of the benches in the Food Gallery when we were wandering around in it. I hadn't noticed him since I was busy taking pictures.

Anyways, I said that since the young guy wasn't there, we should just try to explore the rest of this black gallery. I saw an almost hidden passage to an inner room ("hidden" because the dark walls and evening lighting in the museum had a way of concealing the room from certain angles). This room had some chairs arranged as if there was a meeting in progress. As I was about to walk down the room, a funny feeling hit me. I wonder now if it was because of the strange encounter with the teenage guy. Although the light in the room was constant, I thought I saw something or somethings flickering in the air. like small slivers of images that should be there but somehow are not.

I said to Wolfy that I did not feel like going into that room and he immediately agreed with me. He felt that there were "things" in the room.

I guess, despite our Singaporean-ness, we decided that some freebies are not really worth going all the way for. Walking out of the museum, Wolfy said to me that he felt there were a lot of unseen presences in the National Museum, even back before it was renovated.

I suppose a ton of old things that were once used and owned by people might draw their spirits if concentrated in a particular place.

Well, if you have visited the National Museum and have seen something strange there, I'd like to know about it. OR, if you feel that any place like the National Museum is naturally creepy because of the architecture or lighting, I would also like to hear the skeptical view. Please post your views. :D