La Vida Laura

One of my New York City goals – and one I haven’t exactly been meeting lately – is to visit more off-the-beaten-path museums. Everyone knows about the Met, the MoMA, the Museum of Natural History, and the like, but there are so many more quirky gems to discover in this city, and I want to see all of them (or at least a lot of them). First up, The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

I first heard about the museum because it is currently home to a display that’s near and dear to my heart: a Mad Men retrospective. The exhibit is smaller than I would have liked – there are so many great costumes and period details on the show; it seems like they could have filled rooms – but great. The display houses iconic costumes, a few sets (including Don’s office and the Draper kitchen), and various props. I loved it all, but my favorites were, predictably, the costumes, and of those, especially the ladies’ outfits: Megan’s “Zou Bisou Bisou” dress, Betty’s pink robe, Joan’s sultry office wear.

After wandering through Mad Men, I decided to check out what else was on offer at the museum. The first thing I ran into was the wonderfully random How Cats Took Over the Internet exhibit, which was basically a collection of cat videos – not exactly your typical museum display!

Then it was on to the Behind the Screen exhibit, which housed a collection of the props and tools used to make movies. Naturally, I thought the costume and makeup displays were the most interesting, though I also loved the collections of movie merchandise and memorabilia.

Finally, I came to Tut’s Fever Movie Palace, a movie theater and art installation intended to be an homage to the glitzy movie theaters of the 1920s. This was kitschy but worth a quick look:

As a pop culture aficionado, there was a lot to enjoy at the Museum of the Moving Image. The eclectic mix of exhibits was offbeat and engaging, and any chance to look at gorgeous costumes is a win for me. It was worth the trek to Queens!