SHAPE Shifting

Lanvin harem pants. Courtesy Marie Claire.

Nicolas, Prince of Congo 1899. Courtesy: NYPL Archives.

Sherwal (harem) Pants--actually based on menswear in Turkey and the Middle East--are not so fast a thing of the past. I'm thinking of them this week as all things voluminous balloon inside my head, that's what you get for flipping through this month's issue of Vogue--the SHAPE issue that has the likes of Gisele dishing on their curves! Fashion has a very amusing and voluminously vacuous sense of humor.

In other news, the New York Public Library (how much do I love this institution!) is rolling out a phat favor for all us card-carrying NYPL fashion fundis. NYPL will offer online access to the coveted Berg Fashion Library for its members beginning this week. Yeah!
          

















NYPL celebrates the rich Berg archives tomorrow with Tim Gunn's co-author of two books, Ada Calhoun.