NEW YORK The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that the 2011 edition of its tony “Met Ball” — as Vogue’s annual Costume Institute Gala at the museum is known — will take as its inspiration the work of the late British designer Alexander McQueen, an art collector himself whose gilt-and-brocade final collection was inspired by Old Master paintings. The May 2nd gala event, co-chaired by PPR chief François-Henri Pinault and his wife, Salma Hayek, along with Anna Wintour, Stella McCartney, and Colin Firth, will be followed by an exhibition of the radical fashion designer life’s work, scheduled to run from May 4 to July 31 under the title “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.”

Over 100 pieces will be included in the show, from the 1992 collection that McQueen presented as his Central St. Martins graduate thesis to ensembles created for Givenchy in the 90s and items he crafted for his friend, the late queen of style Isabella Blow. Hats and jewels he produced with such collaborators as Philip Treacy and Shaun Leane will also be exhibited, along with his celebrated last collection, which was premiered posthumously.

“His catwalk presentations were outstanding and straddle art and fashion,” Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton told Women’s Wear Daily. “We want to get across two elements — the spectacle of the runway presentations and the beauty of his craftsmanship.” 

“Savage Beauty” will be arranged not chronologically but around themes, including “The Savage Mind,” “Romantic Gothic,” “Romantic Nationalism,” “Romantic Exoticism,” and “Romantic Primitivism.” Sam Gainsbury and Joseph Bennett, who produced many of McQueen’s over-the-top runway shows (think paint-flinging robots) will serve as creative consultants for the exhibition and the red carpet extravaganza, which is always a kind of better-dressed, art-touting version of the Oscars,Replica Abercrombie shoes, jam-packed with more stars than the Milky Way.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Writing a song for a Disney animated film puts a songwriter into a long and legendary line that has produced 30 nominations and 10 wins going back to “When You Wish Upon a Star” in 1940.

And writing a song for a “Winnie the Pooh” movie is just as daunting a task, because it requires a songwriter to follow in the footsteps of Richard and Robert Sherman, who penned the well-known “Pooh” theme song and also wrote “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “It’s a Small World” and “I Wan’na Be Like You,” among many others.

“The tradition of music in Disney animated films is pretty spectacular. But I tried not to think about it, because I might be overwhelmed if I did,” said actress and singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel, who couldn’t exactly ignore that history when she was drafted to contribute to this year’s Disney version of the A.A. Milne stories.

Her initial task, after all, was to record a new version of the Sherman brothers’ theme song. When that went well, she was asked to write and record an end-credits song, which turned out to be “So Long,” one of the film’s two Oscar entries. And after that, she was asked to contribute vocals to other songs in the film … all while finishing a tour with her band, She and Him, and getting ready to begin filming her new TV series, “The New Girl.”

“It kind of happened in little bits and pieces over the course of the year,” Deschanel told TheWrap.

“That’s the thing with music for me. Songwriting was always something that I did in my private time as a release, very much on my own. It didn’t come out into the world until later in my life. But now,Inflatable Jumpers, as my schedule has gotten so weird and so busy, I feel like I need to keep going back to it.”

Deschanel first got involved with “Winnie the Pooh” when music supervisor Tom McDougall showed her a 10-minute segment that had been cut to a She and Him song, and asked if she’d record the title song. She enlisted bandmate Matt Ward (who goes by M. Ward) to produce, and settled on an approach to a song whose original version was recorded by a large chorus of anonymous singers.

“I think there was something that Matt and I saw in that song that we could pull out, that wasn’t really focused on in the original recording,” she said. “That was the warmth and the intimacy of the song.

We wanted it to feel very warm and sweet. I felt like it should welcome people into the story.”

Her Oscar entry “So Long,” though, ushers viewers out of the story through its placement in the final credits. “They showed me a rough cut of the movie, so I knew what was leading up to that song,” she said. “I knew that I wanted to write a love song, but about friendship love.”

Her models, she said, came from albums she loved both as a kid and as an adult: Harry Nilsson’s “The Point,” Carole King’s “Really Rosie” and the compilation “Free to Be … You and Me.”

“I listened to all of those again,” she said. “They all had classic chord progressions and catchy melodies with good lyrical hooks and very strong choruses. I wanted a song that was upbeat and made you feel happy walking out of the theater, and also one that kids would enjoy.”

The discipline, she added, was dramatically different from writing for her own band, in which she’s free to tackle any subject and take any approach.

“There’s something overwhelming about being able to write about anything, which I can do in She and Him,” she said. “This was like cracking a code. I had to think, ‘How do I accomplish all these things for the movie, how do I tell the story without getting too literal or writing something totally off-topic?’

“But once I did crack the code, it was inspiring. And the movie people pretty much let me do my thing. They were extremely cool about letting me have my creative moment with the song.”

So far, she adds, there’s just one additional thing she’d like out of the experience — and it’s not an Oscar nomination, but a face-to-face with her predecessors in the “Winnie the Pooh” songwriting gig.

“I haven’t met the Sherman brothers yet,” she says. “I would love to, I’m such a fan.”

Sized extra-small to large, this $68 sheer chiffon and sequined cardigan — available in charcoal gray and black — is perfect past Christmas and New Year’s Eve when paired with a plain T-shirt and a pair of shorts, jeans or even a pencil skirt.

This was a sell-out at Urban Outfitters. It’s back — on backorder, at least — and I know why: It’s a little magic, a little Michael Jackson and completely dazzling!

Buy it here.

PRODUCT DETAILS
- By Silence & Noise exclusively at Urban Outfitters
- Sheer chiffon bed jacket cropped short with an open front
- Covered with tonal sequins
- Imported
- Hand wash
- 21″ length from shoulder to hem
- Polyester

Celebrities like Christina Ricci have gone crazy for this little embellished shrug from M By Marc Bouwer.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Marc Bouwer is a preference designer for every star from Pamela Anderson apt Toni Braxton, who always adore his clingy iconic robes, and immediately he is debuting a covered-up QVC line.

Spring has sprung–you tin penetrate it in this shrug! The delightful V-neck topper is dressed up with flirty bloom embellishments aboard the front. From M by Marc Bouwer.

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By Sasha Charnin Morrison as UsMagazine.com. To peruse more of the Recessionista blog, press here.

M by Marc Bouwer Embellished Shrug, $46.75

* Fitted; length calculations XS 16″, S 16-1/2″, M 17″, L 17-1/2″, XL 18″, 1X 18-1/2″, 2X 19″, 3X 19-1/2″

* XS(4), S(6-8), M(10-12), L(14-16), XL(18-20), 1X(18W-20W), 2X(22W-24W), 3X(26W-28W)

* Made in China

* Hand rinse, arrange smooth to dry

The flirty flowers and cropped length are super sweet and sexy for over your daytime wear in your cublicle and then a pleasing piece for cocktails. Priced at $46.75 and accessible in avocado and black, this namely a have to for every budding fashionista. Click away, because this namely a peppery tiny number and selling hasty.

* 62% viscose/38% nylon, preferential of decoration

* Three button front, ribbed knit trim, elbow sleeves, straight bottom hem