Oscar de la Renta and André Leon Talley FilmMagic
When fashion designer and Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Chairman Oscar de la Renta approached Vogue Contributing Editor André Leon Talley for his expertise on the museum's upcoming exhibition "Joaquín Sorolla and the Glory of the Spanish Dress," which opens in New York City on December 8th, Talley admitted that he didn't know much about the seminal eighteenth and nineteenth Spanish painter. "I was not familiar with [Sorolla's] work before," he said. "It was a great discovery for me to walk into his museum in Madrid on a residential street where his house and his museum are all in one."
The trip that Talley is referring to is one that he took with de la Renta and the Institute this past March in order to do "National Geographic kind of research" on Sorolla and his work. "We went to his museum and the Royal Museum and saw these extraordinary paintings, which absolutely are the foundation of the whole purpose of the show," he explained. "We were able to find the cultural identity of each Spanish region through dress. In many instances, Sorolla bought regional dresses, took it back to Madrid, put it on his relatives and used them as models to do the studies to do the paintings." Thus, the survey not only features ten of Sorolla's paintings such as "Characters from Largartera" (1912) that depicts a wedding and "Flamenco Dancer" (1914), which appears to be seemingly unfinished, but also includes over thirty original pieces of women's and men's clothing and accessories.
Talley's favorite? Well that's hard to say, considering that he said "Flamenco Dancer" "represents the joy of Spain" and "The Bread Fiesta" unveiled "brides wearing 100 pounds of fashion."
To play the collection to a modern perspective, de la Renta and Talley also showcased contemporary dress that happened to be influenced by Spain's original regional styles from the likes of Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix and many others. "Each designer, each dress gives you a glimpse of the beauty of Spain," he described.
"Whether it’s the inspiration of a flamenco ruffle and flounce with Carolina Herrera or Karl Lagerfeld making that beautiful black
dress for Mrs. De la Renta, Oscar’s wife, to wear to the Chanel exhibit in 2005. You can see the ruffles are very, very indicative of what a Spanish lady might wear to Holy week."
A particular frock that struck him was a Christian Lacroix couture 2009 wedding dress. "It was inspired by the Macarena, the image of the Holy Virgin in the cathedral in Seville," he explained.
But Talley wasn't transfixed with just the opulent pieces that Sorolla portrayed -- in fact he felt quite the opposite, "Even a shepherd’s cape is something so beautiful even though he's obviously attending sheep. In that utilitarian cape, you see something so extraordinarily simple. It may just be men carrying loaves of bread, but they have on their best outfits for this feast day. I think that’s wonderful."
“Joaquín Sorolla and the Glory of Spanish Dress” is on view at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute in New York from December 8th, 2011 through March 10, 2012; spanishinstitute.org.
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