Night at the Museum

11 Sep Night at the Museum

I have a habit of watching Diana Ross in Mahogany. Kind-of like the way I watch Selena, once is never enough. I love the clothing—Ross’s personal style as well as the designs she created.

I bring this up though, because the opening sequence reminded me a lot of the Met’s Through the Looking Glass exhibit, the fifth-highest attended exhibition ever (surpassing Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty)!

Diana’s character, Tracey Chambers, is a display assistant at a department store, attending design school at night in Chicago. Tracey has dreams of making it big as a designer. The opening scene, Tracey’s Kabuki finale, looked like it could have been apart of the China: Through the Looking Glass.

I didn’t get to see Savage Beauty. I wish I had. But since I’ve lived in New York, I’ve made sure to attend to Costume Institute’s exhibits. In this case, twice. I didn’t get kicked out, either.

I pointed out an intricately beaded house dress that I jokingly told Yasmein she can expect to see me wearing, lounging around my apartment. “Oh!” that reminds me, she said, her voice raising a bit because she was excited. “I was watching Million Dollar Listing, and this man went to visit his mom and she opened the door wearing all this jewelry and fur, and it made me think of you. That’s totally going to be you.”

She’s right.

My favorite thing about going to exhibits like this is it shows me that it’s okay to feel your home to the brim with things you love—I like to think of my apartment as a curated space and I’m the museum curator. Like Diana Vreeland ruling over the Met’s Costume Institute in the 60s and 70s with a bejeweled fist.

Any chance I can get to evoke this feeling, I’ll take. Even if it’s the last showing, at 10pm at night.