Sartorially Speaking

On my never-ending hunt for fellow Haute Hoosiers, I was delighted to discover that Scott Schuman, better known as The Sartorialist, his blogger alias, is originally one of our own. If you don't know who The Sartorialist is, you should, so let me enlighten you. He has one of the most enviable and original careers I've ever heard of, and it can be broken down into four simple steps:

1. Wander streets of a wonderful city aimlessly until a stylish lad or lassie with that certain je ne sais quoi is spotted.
2. Take a gorgeous photograph of said superchic lady or gent.
3. Upload said immaculate image to 70,000 hits-a-day blog accompanied by the occasional thought-invoking observation when appropriate.
4. Wait and watch as hundreds of comments from fans going stark-raving bonkers about your photographs consistently flood e-mail box every day.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Schuman about his wildly adored blog in conjunction with his upcoming talk at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on May 8.

Click here to read our snappy little Q&A on Indianapolis Monthly magazine's Web site and to find out more details about his lecture on the elements of style and his experiences as The Sartorialist.

Make it Work: Project IMA

As we all know, fall fashion week (or more accurately, weeks) has come and gone, and because the shows took place in NYC, Milan, and Paris, most of us had to view the excitement from our TVs and computers. This Friday, however, fashion comes to us in the form of Project IMA – a fashion show highlighting the designs of 16 talented Hoosiers in correlation with the IMA’s new contemporary fashion exhibition, Breaking the Mode. Best of all, the event is free. So log off style.com, throw on your most modish attire and join me and other local fashion fiends at IMA’s Pulliam Great Hall for the show. See you there! April 4th. 7 p.m. Indianapolis Museum of Art.

La mode et le musée

I love museums. Every time I go to one, I leave feeling uber sophisticated and intellectually stimulated at the same time. What I love even more than going to a museum? Going to a museum with a fabulous new fashion exhibit, of course. The Indianapolis Museum of Art will be hosting Breaking the Mode: Contemporary Fashion from the Permanent Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art until June 1. This exhibition showcases the revolutionary work of more than 40 international designers including Rei Kawakubo, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. It's worth attending just to view the groundbreaking techniques these fashion geniuses employed to create their gravity defying silhouettes. My personal fave? The unusual Junya Watanabe for Commes des Garçons look near the end of the exhibit: the skirt's hem was created from tons of trenchcoat collars. Even my boyfriend (who I bribed to go with the promise of dinner on me) thought the vampire-ish t-shirt that went with it was cool.

Image: imamuseum.org; Dress by Issey Miyake, spring/summer 1994