There’s an exhibit in SF at the Legion of Honor called Pulp Fashion.  (No, it’s not art from a Quentin Tarantino movie)  It’s an extraordinary exhibit of costumes, fashions, and textile items created in paper.  The artist behind all this is Isabelle de Borchgrave.  The name might sound vaguely familiar to folks that have shopped Target’s paper goods section.  She designed several seasons’ worth of party ware and paper goods, but apparently she was busy doing other things as well.

leanor of Toledo (and detail), 2006, inspired by a ca. 1545 portrait of Eleanor and her son Giovanni de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: René Stoeltie

This exhibit is filled with paper textiles and costumes painted, cut, molded, burned, pasted, ironed, pleated and gilded.  Isabelle De Borchgrave took her direction for many of these costumes from paintings made from those periods.

Image courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library

Taking a two dimensional picture of a dress to a three dimensional costume gave me a new perspective on how incredibly ornate the real things must have been.  It was all I could do to not reach out and touch the garments.

If you’re in or around the SF Bay area, it’s worth seeing before it closes June 5th, 2011.