On Wednesday, Ethan and I went to MOCA‘s SKIN + BONES: PARALLEL PRACTICES IN FASHION AND ARCHITECTURE exhibit, which was hosted by Dwell Magazine. Arriving at 7:05, there were not a heck of a lot of people there yet, though that would change quickly. Though they were serving hors d’oeuvres and wine, we skipped it and went directly into the exhibit. (I don’t drink anyways, precepts and all )

The way it flowed was very well planned out. Starting off with a room devoted to a fashion designers ‘layering’ exhibit, it really began your experience with an easy and direct understanding of how fashion and architecture were, in fact, related. I believe the name was even shelter, but don’t completely remember. Around the corner came what turned out to be Ethan’s favorite piece of the exhibit; a somewhat deconstruction of men’s dress shirts – each folded and pieced together uniquely. The next piece that really sticks in my mind was a section of this building commissioned by 19 Arabs countries. The display explained that one side had a very traditional arab look, then the opposite side was to be the ‘western translation’ of it. They had a section of the wall of this translation. Imagine an entire wall of separate sections constructed of steel; each section having many large camera-like apertures that would react to light via sensors therefore changing the amount of light allowed into the building. Brilliant. One of the other pieces that both of us were impressed with was actually a dress.

the picture does not do it justice, and though I couldn’t imagine a woman wearing it would find it comfortable or even livable, looking at it in person was interesting. Your eyes could not focus on the majority of the dress! Likely due to what it was made from, and how it was constructed, but none-the-less strange. As we continued on through the exhibit the fashion became less, and the architecture took over. Frank Gehry‘s working models of the Walt Disney Concert Hall were great to see, especially since that is where we parked (across the street from MOCA) and walked from. I was really hoping to see more of the Curtain Wall House

but no such luck. Oh well. The final part of the exhibit was devoted to a ‘mist house’ that was created during a Swiss expo. The structure was created in a lake, then the ‘building’ itself had walls constructed of 400+ mist sprays sourced from the lake. People then wore computer controlled raincoats to visit the building and as they walked through, they would light up with colors when another person matched, therefore promoting conversation. This sounded like it would have been a great experience to be part of; quite interesting.

Ethan and I really enjoyed the exhibit.