Skip to main content
“Paloma” Cigarette Dress, Fall/Winter 2013 (Eccentric Lady Collection), designed by Gerlan Jeans in collaboration with Degen, New York (On loan from Gerlan Jeans)

“Paloma” Cigarette Dress, Fall/Winter 2013 (Eccentric Lady Collection), designed by Gerlan Jeans in collaboration with Degen, New York (On loan from Gerlan Jeans)

Exhibition

Gerlan Jeans Loves Patrick Kelly

April 27–December 7, 2014

“ Almost all of what's out there today has some element of Patrick in it.” Gerlan Marcel, 2013 The legacy of the late African American fashion designer Patrick Kelly (c. 1954–1990) endures in the whimsical street-wear brand Gerlan Jeans. Launched in 2009 by New York–based designer and graphic artist Gerlan Marcel (born 1976), Gerlan Jeans reinterprets Kelly's signature bows, buttons, and other bold embellishments to create clothes for men and women "who have a sense of fearlessness in the way they dress." Similar to Kelly's fashions, which were inspired by the designer's Mississippi childhood, Gerlan Jeans reflects Marcel's Midwest upbringing, in particular her teenage experiences with American mall culture and admiration for 1980s and 1990s jeans brands such as Esprit and Benetton.

A graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, Gerlan Marcel honed her talents working for Jeremy Scott and Patricia Field, among other designers. As with Kelly's clothes, Gerlan Jeans reveals Marcel's extensive knowledge of Western pop culture, from the fluorescent green, slime-covered designs of its Mall Witch Spring/Summer 2012 collection (inspired by Nickelodeon's hit TV show You Can't Do That on Television) to the appropriation of Disney's Minnie Mouse as the muse for its polka-dotted, bow-dazzled Gerl Power Spring/Summer 2013 line.

Marcel's admiration for Kelly and his provocative collections ("All his energy as a designer is in every single piece") is seen not only in Gerlan Jeans' creative use of Kelly's trademark motifs, but also in its imaginatively printed fabrics and love of fully accessorized, head-to-toe dressing, all presented with a sense of humor: "I'm very, very serious about taking myself less seriously."

Gerlan Jeans Loves Patrick Kelly

Gerlan Jeans runway highlights



Main Building

Curators

Laura Camerlengo, Exhibition Assistant in the Department of Costume and Textiles

Related Events

Check out the variety of events offered by this program, for members and the public alike.

Architectural elements
Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku (Evanescent Joys)
,

This ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the Japanese architect Ögi Rodö. Designed in the rustic tradition or "artless style" of the fifteenth-century artist Oguri Sotan, it also incorporates eighteenth-century elements. The Sunkaraku teahouse originally stood on the grounds of Rodö's private residence in Tokyo. He sold it to the Museum in 1928, and in 1957 it was installed at the Museum, making it the only work by Rodö outside Japan. The garden setting you see now was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui.

The apparent artlessness of the teahouse in fact conceals acute attention to detail and to aesthetic pleasure. The architecture of both the waiting room and the tearoom reveals a special delight in natural materials such as cypress shingles (for the roof) and bamboo. Proximity to nature is also emphasized by the garden, visible from both buildings. Everything inside the tearoom has been planned to stimulate the mind and to delight the eye. Rough, unfinished vertical posts remind guests of their imperfections and their oneness with nature, and the tea utensils enhance their sensitivity to natural textures and artistic creativity.

The tea ceremony offers a temporary respite from the complexities of daily life. This mood perhaps inspired a famous devotee of the tea cult, Lord Fumai Matsudaira (1750-1818), when he autographed the tablet over the teahouse with the inscription "Sun Ka Raku," or Evanescent Joys.

1/12
Architectural elements
Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku (Evanescent Joys)
,

This ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the Japanese architect Ögi Rodö. Designed in the rustic tradition or "artless style" of the fifteenth-century artist Oguri Sotan, it also incorporates eighteenth-century elements. The Sunkaraku teahouse originally stood on the grounds of Rodö's private residence in Tokyo. He sold it to the Museum in 1928, and in 1957 it was installed at the Museum, making it the only work by Rodö outside Japan. The garden setting you see now was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui.

The apparent artlessness of the teahouse in fact conceals acute attention to detail and to aesthetic pleasure. The architecture of both the waiting room and the tearoom reveals a special delight in natural materials such as cypress shingles (for the roof) and bamboo. Proximity to nature is also emphasized by the garden, visible from both buildings. Everything inside the tearoom has been planned to stimulate the mind and to delight the eye. Rough, unfinished vertical posts remind guests of their imperfections and their oneness with nature, and the tea utensils enhance their sensitivity to natural textures and artistic creativity.

The tea ceremony offers a temporary respite from the complexities of daily life. This mood perhaps inspired a famous devotee of the tea cult, Lord Fumai Matsudaira (1750-1818), when he autographed the tablet over the teahouse with the inscription "Sun Ka Raku," or Evanescent Joys.

Check out other exhibitions


View full calendar