An afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

My trip to NYC afforded me the opportunity to get to know Claire, the wife of a university friend of mine who I rather pathetically only met for the first time at their wedding last year. After an evening of plotting on the rooftop of an awesome club called Mr Saturday Night – which is held in someone's apartment, in true New York disco heritage style – and working out how the hell we'd never met when we appeared to know all the same people, we made plans to hang out in the week, for further girl chat and plotting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was deemed the most suitable venue.



Tea and cake came first, naturally, in the museum's new American Wing. Claire told me she'd gone to a party there that Sarah Jessica Parker had also attended. I'm sad to say that I got quite excited about that. Apparently she does that cutesy brushing aside of her hair with her fingers gesture a lot in real life. We gossiped our way through Arms and Armor and Musical Instruments, checking out the world's first ever saxophone and Ringo Starr's golden drum...





...then made our way up to the American Woman exhibition, which traces what the American woman wore between 1890 and 1940. We did some serious oohing and ahhing. Particularly at these Liberty of London evening coats.

And beautiful 1920s and 1930s evening dresses from Lanvin, Chanel and Edward Molyneux amongst others. Imagine settling onto a banquette at The Algonquin in one of these little numbers.

Then we made our way up to the roof, to take in the view and commune with Mike and Doug Starn's huge bamboo installation, Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop. 

Call me stupid, but it was the first time I'd really got a sense of the whole different city that exists high up in the sky above New York. Both Claire and I instinctively jumped up on to the bench next to these luxuriantly bouncy bushes which line the rooftop garden to sort of floof around on them and get a better look at the view, only to be instantly told by the snooty guards to get down. It's always nice to find another new partner in mad.

 

The American Woman exhibition is ending on Sunday, so if you’ve been meaning to go, make sure you do!

(Image of the New American wing courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)