What's New

The fundamentals of haute couture in Europe and America — highly sexualized fitted forms, balance, finish, invisible tailoring and complementary color and pattern — are noticeably absent from contemporary Japanese fashion. Instead, imperfection, transience, austerity, asymmetry, roughness, simplicity and subtlety are valued. As designer Yohji Yamamoto affirmed, "I think perfection is ugly. Perfection is a kind of order ... things someone forces onto a thing. A free human being does not desire such things." more »

The show explores the use of glass beads for fashion and ornament, as traded goods and objects of ritual. Included are Venetian chevron and millefiori beads, Roman mosaic beads, West Africa bodom beads, Egyptian eye beads, Chinese horned eye beads, Japanese magatama beads and Bohemian beads imitating precious stones. North American beadworked garments and contemporary beaded objects by Joyce Scott and David Chatt are on display. more »

Charles Ornstein writes: Comparison shopping sounds like a no-brainer, but for many reasons, it’s not. It is time consuming and eye glazing even for a health-care journalist to enter in drugs and review the resulting options. A study commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation in October found that only 13 percent of Part D enrollees, on average, switched plans each year between 2006 and 2010. Seven out of 10 people continuously enrolled in plans from 2006 to 2010 never switched. more »

Doris O'Brien writes: So why deny folks that pleasurable opportunity in lieu of staying home with family and friends, watching TV, or maybe even talking to one another? There are lots of movie-goers on Thanksgiving; why not shoppers? But far be it from me to tell business people how to run their enterprises or customers how to spend their time or money. After all, nobody has to shop on Thanksgiving if they don't want to. more »