Brunch with Dali



Phones with lobster receivers. Green apples and bowler hats. Marvelously mundane objects floating through an absurdly blue, puffy-clouded sky. Oh, if there's one art movement I absolutely adore, it's Surrealism.

Most of London also appears to be taken with these fragments of dreams and utter nonsense. The Victoria and Albert Museum's Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design exhibit opens on Thursday, and the anticipatory buzz can be seen city-wide. Boutique window displays, British Vogue, even a chocolatier are giving a hallucinatory-like salute to the exhibition. My favorite? The Surrealist poems Selfridges department store is printing on their receipts.

The curtains of the V&A's homage to the impact Miro, Dali, James, and crew had on design, will not officially be drawn for another two days, but Kasey and I were treated to a sneak preview. We attended the press event this morning thanks to Kasey's affiliation with the fashion media (and surely, my retired reporter status counted for something).



Uniformed waiters served the press croissants and orange juice from linen-lined trays, and then directed us through doors which stated that food and drink were not allowed inside.

As we explored the makeshift world of dreams, we were encouraged to take what pictures we wanted, despite the ominous signs declaring that photography was strictly prohibited. It was a bit, well, surreal.



The happy outcome of my jaunt through the illusions of rules and reality being, obviously, that even those of you who won't see the inside of London's V&A before the end of July, will not be barred from entering the exhibit altogether. I think the Surrealists would be pleased.





This jacket is covered in shot glasses.

When it was originally displayed, Dali put a bottle of creme de menthe on a table alongside (I guess the museum is on a tighter budget) and a sign encouraging people to pour themselves a shot and drink up. He titled it Aphrodisian Jacket.

What a trendsetter Dali was! There are so many men who own this very garment!







This diorama is supposed to mimic what it felt like to cavemen to experience art in a cave. A very well-decorated cave.










Costumes from a Surrealist ballet.














The ballet was actually the entry-point for many Surrealists and their art.












An interesting chess set and a woman watching slides of Paris - can you see the Arc de Triomphe in the aquamarine background? The woman was not part of the exhibit.







The first murmurs of Surrealism could also be found in window displays.

They found the idea of mannequins slightly disconcerting.

It would seem Elsa Schiaparelli's parfumerie lent some inspiration to Tim Burton if you ask me.








Meret Oppenheim's Table with Bird's Legs. Obviously.
















Yes, there's the Mae West Lips sofa and even the Lobster Telephones, but as much as I love Surrealism, I still would not want this for my living room.

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