http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/arts/design/at-the-met-honoring-kimonos-and-a-scholar-of-the-same.html 2014-09-19 01:59:39 At the Met, Honoring Kimonos and a Scholar of the Same The work of the textiles historian Terry Satsuki Milhaupt anchors “Kimono: A Modern History,” an exhibition coming to the Met. === The textiles historian Terry Satsuki Milhaupt had nearly finished her comprehensive book on kimonos when she committed suicide in 2012. Her widower, Mr. Milhaupt, a law professor at Columbia, said in an interview that when the book galleys finally arrived, “I burst into tears, mostly from relief.” He had announced at Ms. Milhaupt’s memorial service that he would shepherd her nearly polished manuscript into print. He spent countless hours poring over her home library and computer files to finalize images and double-check facts, with help from the couple’s son, Conrad, now a junior at Regis High School in Manhattan, and scholar friends. “I felt a huge responsibility to Terry and to her field and, frankly, to Conrad to have this work see the light of day,” Mr. Milhaupt said. Ms. Milhaupt studied how kimonos over the last three centuries have revealed the wearers’ political leanings and cravings for westernization. The Met is filling galleries with clothing for firefighters, courtesans, actors and children in patterns including lobsters, demons, clouds and dewdrops. Paintings, photos and prints depict people manufacturing the textiles and sometimes opting instead for Western-style flounced gowns, tailored suits and bowler hats. By the 1920s, Japanese men and women had started wrapping themselves in images of nightclub singers, cameras, train tickets and athletes. During World War II, warplanes, tanks, soldiers, machine guns, bombs and swastikas were added to the pattern options, even on toddlers’ outfits. “The kimono has long served as a tableau on which to inscribe, describe and absorb the effects of modernization,” Ms. Milhaupt wrote. The Japanese government battled against the more extravagant outfits, “prohibiting gold and silver leaf appliqué on the clothing of prostitutes,” she wrote. A women’s association proselytized for simple pantsuits. Dogmatic association members, Ms. Milhaupt wrote, “cut the flowing kimono sleeves of noncomplying women.” Mr. Milhaupt made minor edits in her drafts and consulted with experts including Monika Bincsik and John Carpenter at the Met, and Sharon Takeda at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Kimonos began appearing in his dreams. “I really tried to step into Terry’s shoes,” he said. Fortunately, he added, “she was a hyper-organized person.” Her largely secret decline into depression, he said, resulted from menopausal hormone changes. After her death, he said, “Conrad kept me going through many of these dark nights.” Scholarships have been established in her memory, including a fund for the study of Japanese textiles at the He has not decided what to do with her library. “I’m not ready to let go of it yet,” he said. For the show, the Met purchased wartime propaganda kimonos from the dealer Among the major lenders to the Met exhibition are the Manhattan collector John C. Weber and the curator of his collection, Julia B. Meech. Ms. Meech gave a tour of the holdings, boxed up in storage. As she lifted the lids, fabrics fluttered and revealed motifs of skulls, playing cards, cricket cages and tangled necklaces. A red jacket embroidered with gilded waves, she explained, was meant for rich women to wear while fleeing burning homes. “You had your special escape-the-house garment,” Ms. Meech said. Three current kimono exhibitions run through Oct. 19: “Kimono for a Modern Age,” at the Los Angeles County Through Sept. 20, BIDDING FOR BOOKENDS Yes, bookends can lead to bidding wars. Prices surpassed $8,000 a pair at a February On Oct. 1, Bonhams will offer Another major collection belongs to Robert and Donna Seecof, the married authors of “ The early-1900s heyday of bookend manufacturing coincided with Americans’ pride in their growing literacy rate. Owning enough books to need bookends, Ms. Seecof said in an interview, amounted to “small indications that you’re an educated person.” The couple are seeking a few elusive items. They have seen but have not yet been able to buy a finely detailed variety of Abraham Lincoln-themed bookends, made by the Gorham Manufacturing Company. In lettering on the bronze surface, Mr. Seecof said, “You could read the whole Gettysburg Address, with no problem.”