Beauty Triennial At Cooper Hewitt

Thom Brown Selects for New York Fashion Week Men's (2015)

My love affair with museums began almost a decade ago when I was living in Tokyo, with my favorite being the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hill, and my girl Melissa and I would spend our days off visiting different museums and cafe-hopping all over town.

One of the best part about living in New York for a museum geek like me is the accessibility to world-class institutions and a steady rotation of amazing exhibitions, and it makes for a good solitary activity since I can wander through the exhibits at my own pace and then spend as much time as I like it in the museum shop. 

On a cold early spring afternoon yesterday, I decided to head uptown to check out Cooper Hewitt, a Smithsonian design museum located along the Museum Mile in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Housed in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion which is a National Historic Landmark building constructed in 1903, it is the only museum in America that is dedicated to historical and contemporary design and holds over 240 years of design aesthetic and creativity.

The current exhibition is Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, the fifth installment of their signature contemporary design exhibition series and will be on view through August 21 2016, celebrating "design as a creative endeavor that engages the mind, body, and senses" and features over 250 works by 63 designers and teams from around the world, including my home country of Singapore.

Skirt and Top by Giambattista Valli from their Fall / Winter Collection (2014)

Nail Designs by Naomi Yasuda (2016)

Dress by by Sanne van Winden, Suzanne van der Aa and Michiel Schuurman (2015)

Architecture is Everywhere by Sou Fujimoto Architects (2015)

The Afreaks series by the Hass Brothers (2015)

Ensemble from Couture Collection (2014)

PolyThread Knitted Textile Pavllion by Jenny Savin Studio (2014-2015)

Cooper Hewitt is open weekdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays to 9:00 p.m. Tickets are priced at $9 for students and $18 for adults. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online for a discount.