Thanks for reading my posts on modernity and fashion,
Letting me exercise my long-running Art Deco passion.
While the exhibition’s been given an extended stay,*
To other topics I really should stray.
What subjects shall I choose to beguile your time?
And is it necessary that they all should rhyme?
For fashion is a most powerful force,
Too important to simply let it take its course.

No, we must examine and ponder its inner meaning
If we are to have any hope of gleaning,
The reasons behind what we wore and when,
Details that spark the times we pretend,
Our dreams can be conveyed through fabric and design,
And allowed to ferment like a very fine wine.
Thus forcing me to pick up my electronic pen,
And repeat how everything old is new again.

The truth, dear readers, is a question to you—
What would you most want me to do? I
n the year ahead since the Art Deco motif is spent,
On what new journeys should we be sent?
It’s been a pleasure to wander afield
To see what secrets fashion can yield.
Shall I head back into the past for wonders to plumb,
Or is the retrospective view simply too dumb?
Since past and present have a way of intertwining, I
’d better get started, and quit all this whining! *

“Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve” has been extended to May 22, 2009. If you haven’t seen it yet, come to the Wachenheim Gallery of the Central Building at 42nd Street, first floor. I’m starting work on an online version, coming soon in the months ahead…