Bill Cunningham: Facades

   

     If you have a passion for photography, fashion, or BOTH, you MUST check out the Bill Cunningham: Facades exhibit at the New York Historical Society Museum & Library in Central Park.

   

     For those of you who don't know, Bill Cunningham is a retired, famous fashion photographer for The New York Times. Cunningham has rode his bike around New York City ever since the 60's in effort to capture the latest fashions right as you see them on the street! He never shot pictures of well-known celebrities, but instead focused on your average person in Manhattan! After doing this all of his life, Cunningham has truly captured the complete evolution of fashion throughout the last 40 to 50 years. Now how many people can say they did THAT?

     Cunningham's Facades project is even MORE special. Throughout the 1960's and 70's, Cunningham and his partner in crime, Editta Sherman, photographed all of the oldest builds in Manhattan. Some of the buildings that are still standing today have been here since the 1700's (so cool)! But here's the best part-- for every building they photographed, Editta dressed in clothing that was popular during the time period the building was built. So even though the pictures were taken in the 60's, if the building was built in 1766, Editta posed in front of the building in 1766 style clothing. 

     The point of the project was to emphasize New York history and remind us of our great city's origins. In many areas of New York, historic buildings were starting to become covered with graffiti. Cunningham and Sherman's efforts were meant to discourage this kind of destruction of property in order to maintain the beauty of New York City. Personally, I couldn't think of a more unique and better way of sending this message. 

Here are some more pictures of the exhibit:

                          

       

                                  

     If you want to see more photos of this amazing project, check out the exhibit for yourself at The New York Historical Society Museum & Library at 170 Central Park West and 77th Street! The museum is open from 10 am - 6 pm, and students can get in for just $12! But you better go soon because the exhibit is only there until June 15th! Here's the museum's website for more details:

https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/bill-cunningham-facades

     Don't have time to see the exhibit for yourself? Don't worry! You can still learn all about Bill Cunningham in the documentary Bill Cunningham New York, which can be found on Netflix . It is a very fun and interesting documentary (and also where I got all my information from)! And I swear you are going to just fall in love with this sweet old man! Check it out!

Until the next adventure,

Fashion Fox